The association between spatial access to physical activity facilities within home and workplace neighborhoods and time spent on physical activities: evidence from Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Background: Urban residents from the developing world have increasingly adopted a sedentary lifestyle and spend less time on physical activities (PA). Previous studies on the association between PA facilities and individuals' PA levels are based on the assumption that individuals have opportunities to use PA facilities within neighborhoods all day long, ignoring the fact that their willingness and opportunities to use nearby facilities depend on how much discretionary time (any time when people have a choice what to do) they have. Further, scant attention has been paid to the influence of PA facilities within both residential and workplace neighborhoods in the dense urban context. To address the above research gaps, this study investigated the links between the spatial access to PA facilities within home/workplace neighborhoods and time spent on PA among working adults, focusing on whether results were different when different measures of accessibility were used and whether participants' discretionary time over a week affected their time spent on PA. Method: This study used data from a questionnaire survey (n = 1002) in Guangzhou between June and July 2017 and point of interest (POI) data from online mapping resources. Outcome variables included the amount of time spent on physical activity/moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity (PA/MVPA) over the past week. Home/ workplace neighborhoods were measured as different distance buffers (500 m circular buffers, 1000 m circular buffers, and 1080 m network buffers) around each respondent's home/workplace. Spatial access to PA facilities was measured using two indicators: the counts of PA facilities and proximity to PA facilities within home/workplace neighborhoods. The amount of discretionary time was calculated based on activity log data of working day/weekend day from the Guangzhou questionnaire survey, and regression models were used to examine relationships between the spatial access of PA facilities, the time spent on PA/MVPA, and the amount of discretionary time, adjusted for covariates. Associations were stratified by gender, age, education, and income. Results: Using different measures of accessibility (the counts of and proximity to PA facilities) generated different results. Specifically, participants spent more time on PA/MVPA when they lived in neighborhoods with more PA facilities and spent more time on MVPA when worked in closer proximity to PA facilities. A larger amount of discretionary

Transport Poverty in Chinese Cities: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Apart from jobs, accessibility to essential goods and services is also a problem for lower income people [27,38,66,67,84,[87][88][89][90]. These services include health services, education, shopping and physical activity facilities.…”

“…These services include health services, education, shopping and physical activity facilities. Longer travel times for these services may result in low satisfaction levels [66,89]. Among these services, poor access to medical facilities had a substantial impact on low-income households [37,39,90].…”

Spatial Accessibility to Sports Facilities in Dongguan, China: a Multi-Preference Gaussian Two-Step Floating Catchment Area Method

“…With increasing emphasis on health and well-being, the promotion of physical activity has aroused intense attention from the government, the public, and researchers. In this regard, a plethora of studies have reported that the availability and accessibility of sports and recreational services play a prominent role in physical activity attainment (Halonen et al, 2015;Heath et al, 2012;Humpel et al, 2002;Liu et al, 2019). In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended at least 600 metabolic equivalent minutes of physical activity each week.…”

Home and Neighborhood Physical Activity Location Availability among African American Adolescent Girls Living in Low-Income, Urban Communities: Associations with Objectively Measured Physical Activity

“…The association between specific environmental characteristics and physical activity in childhood has been extensively studied [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. For example, an increased number of PA facilities has been shown to be associated with more time spent in MVPA [ 15 ]. Environments shown to support PA among children typically enable recreational activities, including parks, recreation fields, and green space (open land covered in grass or vegetation that could potentially be used for PA) [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”