Perceptions of Neighborhood Park Quality: Associations with Physical Activity and Body Mass Index

Bai, Hua; Stanis, Sonja A. Wilhelm; Kaczynski, Andrew T.; Besenyi, Gina M.

doi:10.1007/s12160-012-9448-4

Cited by 88 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(138 reference statements)

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“…They provide a location for exercise, social interaction, and reflection (Aldous 2007;Baur and Tynon 2010;Sugiyama et al 2010), and people with better access to urban parks live longer (Mitchell and Popham 2008), exercise more (Bai et al 2013;Thompson 2013), have better social cohesion (Kazmierczak 2013), and report better general health (van Dillen et al 2012). Public parks also provide important habitat for fauna and flora in an otherwise hostile urban landscape (Zhou and Chu 2012), and they have commonly been found to harbour much higher levels of biodiversity than the surrounding urban matrix (Matteson et al 2013;Strohbach et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the role of trees and remnant vegetation in attracting people to urban parks?

et al. 2014

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Public parks commonly contain important habitat for urban biodiversity, and they also provide recreation opportunities for urban residents. However, the extent to which dual outcomes for recreation and conservation can be achieved in the same spaces remains unclear. We examine whether greater levels of (i) tree cover (i.e. park 'greenness') and (ii) native remnant vegetation cover (i.e. vegetation with high ecological value) attract or deter park visitors. This study is based on the park visitation behaviour of 670 survey respondents in Brisbane, Australia, detailing 1,090 individual visits to 324 urban parks. We first examined the presence of any clear revealed preferences for visiting parks with higher or lower levels of tree cover or remnant vegetation cover. We then examined the differences between each park visited by respondents and the park closest to their home, and used linear mixed models to identify socio-demographic groups who are more likely to travel further to visit parks with greater tree cover or remnant vegetation cover. Park visitation rates reflected the availability of parks, suggesting that people do not preferentially visit parks with greater vegetation cover despite the potential for improved nature-based experiences and greater wellbeing benefits. However, we discovered that people with a greater orientation towards nature (measured using the nature relatedness scale) tend to travel further for more vegetated parks. Our results suggest that to enhance recreational benefits from ecologically valuable spaces a range of social or educational interventions are required to enhance people's connection to nature.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the role of trees and remnant vegetation in attracting people to urban parks?

et al. 2014

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“…Presence of parks on infrequently traveled routes, poorly maintained park facilities, and lack of safety at parks among other concerns may contribute to low awareness and use of the available parks in one’s neighborhood. 19 To date, a few studies have systematically examined predictors of park use among children and adults using survey and activity log methodologies, 20–22 which may be prone to self-report errors and biases. Objective measures of children’s park use (e.g., accelerometer and GPS) have been deployed in a few descriptive studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Park Use by Children

Dunton

Almanza

Jerrett

et al. 2014

American Journal of Preventive Medicine

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Background While having a greater number of neighborhood parks may be associated with greater overall physical activity in children, information is lacking about the extent to which children actually use parks for physical activity. Purpose This study combined accelerometer, GPS, GIS, and self-report methods to examine neighborhood park availability, perceived proximity, and use for physical activity in children. Methods Low-to-middle income children (aged 8–14 years) (n=135) from suburban communities in Southern California wore an Actigraph accelerometer and GlobalSat BT-335 GPS device across 7 days to measure physical activity and park use, respectively. ArcGIS identified parks within a 500m residential buffer of children’s homes. Parents reported perceptions of neighborhood park proximity through the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Survey (NEWS). Data were collected from March 2009 to December 2010, and analyzed in 2013. Results Fifty-four percent of families lived within 500m of a park. Of these children, GPS data indicated that 16% used it more than 15 minutes and an additional 11% of children used it between 5 and 15 minutes during the 7-day study period. The odds of extended park use (>15 minutes) increased fourfold when the distance between home and the nearest neighborhood park decreased by 100 meters. Additionally, the odds of any park use (>5 minutes) doubled when moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile for park greenness/vegetation density. Conclusions Although children’s use of neighborhood parks was generally low, it increased substantially when parks were closer to children’s homes and had greater vegetation density.

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“…Future research could include the wear of geographic positioning system (GPS) devices in addition to the accelerometers to better assess the specific location and contexts of participants’ PA (Evenson et al, 2013). Similarly, negative perceptions of safety in ORAs like parks have been frequently cited as a barrier for visitation and physical activity behaviors in such settings (Bai et al, 2013). The group-based component of the intervention inherently includes a strong social component to facilitating PA.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal associations with changes in outdoor recreation area use for physical activity during a community-based intervention

Schoffman

Kaczynski

Forthofer

et al. 2015

Preventive Medicine

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Outdoor recreation areas (ORA) are important resources for physical activity (PA) and health promotion. While past research has identified correlates of ORA use, few studies have examined predictors of longitudinal changes in park- and trail-based PA in community settings. Using data from a 6-month community-based walking intervention study, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of PA in ORAs. Data were collected from baseline and 6-month assessments from participants (n=295) in a group walking intervention in South Carolina; participants enrolled from January 2012-May 2013. A decomposition scheme was used to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors of average group ORA use for PA, including social support, self-efficacy for PA, perceptions of neighborhood environment, and accelerometer-based PA, adjusting for gender. On average, participants were 49.4+13.3 years old, 66.1% were Black, and the majority were women. There was a mean increase in group ORA use of 2.1+0.4 days/month from baseline to 6 months. Cross-sectionally, higher levels of the percentage of time in MVPA, self-efficacy, and social support were associated with greater group-average ORA use. Longitudinally, increased social support from friends and rating of lighter motorized traffic were associated with increased group ORA use. Additionally, longitudinal increases in percentage of MVPA and more favorable rating of the neighborhood as a place to walk were both associated with decreased group ORA use. Better understanding how social and physical environmental characteristics impact ORA use for PA can lead to more effective intervention strategies and warrants greater attention in future research and public health promotion efforts.

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Perceptions of Neighborhood Park Quality: Associations with Physical Activity and Body Mass Index

Cited by 88 publications

References 76 publications

What is the role of trees and remnant vegetation in attracting people to urban parks?

What is the role of trees and remnant vegetation in attracting people to urban parks?

Neighborhood Park Use by Children

Longitudinal associations with changes in outdoor recreation area use for physical activity during a community-based intervention

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