The Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces (PARCS) Study: Protocol of a natural experiment to investigate the impact of citywide park redesign and renovation

Huang, Terry T.‐K.; Wyka, Katarzyna; Ferris, Emily; Gardner, Jennifer; Evenson, Kelly R.; Tripathi, Devanshi; Soto, Gabriel Martinez; Cato, Matthew; Moon, Jon; Wagner, Julia; Dorn, Joan M.; Catellier, Diane J.; Thorpe, Lorna E.

doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3822-2

Cited by 29 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Participants of the PARCS study live within the 0.3-mile buffer of each study neighborhood. The PARCS Study includes adults ≥18 years of age with no mobility issues and who understand/speak English, Spanish, or Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) [39]. Out of twenty participants of the current qualitative study, 17 were women, 3 were men; 5 self-identified as Hispanic or Latino/a, 6 as Black or African American, 5 as White or Caucasian, 4 as Other.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, this qualitative research is a sub-study of a larger research project—the PARCS (Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces) Study. The PARCS study leverages a natural experiment opportunity to examine the impact of the Community Parks Initiative (CPI)—a citywide redesign and renovation effort in New York City—on physical activity, park usage, psychosocial and mental health, and community wellbeing [39]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Exploration of Psychosocial Pathways of Parks’ Effects on Health: A Qualitative Study

Swierad

Huang

2018

IJERPH

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Urban green space has been positively associated with psychological and physical health. However, the linkage between exposure to parks and health outcomes remains unclear. The current study examined the meanings that people assign to city parks, as a way to understand the pathways by which parks exert their effects on health. We conducted qualitative interviews with twenty culturally diverse residents in New York City. Thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data. Results showed that all themes identified were related to parks fulfilling a basic human need for connection to (1) family, loved ones, and friends; (2) community and neighborhood; (3) self; and (4) nature. Based on these data, we proposed a human-centered framework for future research and interventions aimed at catalyzing parks as a vehicle to improve health and wellbeing. A human-centered approach emphasizes targeting the deep-seated needs and values of those we seek to engage and for whom health promotion and disease prevention efforts are designed. Our study shows that park transformations need to incorporate careful considerations of the human need for connection on multiple levels, so that park usage and its consequent health benefits may be optimized.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration of Psychosocial Pathways of Parks’ Effects on Health: A Qualitative Study

Swierad

Huang

2018

IJERPH

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“…One study protocol was found focusing on the potential impact of refurbishment, renovation, and redesign of parks on health and well-being in New York City, USA. By using thirty intervention park neighborhoods and twenty control park neighborhoods, the study will investigate whether improvements in physical activity, park usage, psychosocial and mental health, and community well-being can be observed among residents in intervention versus control neighborhoods [26]. The same approach will be used in a study conducted in Melbourne, Australia, but is not described here in detail due to our exclusion criteria mentioned in the Methods section [57].…”

Section: Studies On Urbwellth-the Morphology Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does the Urban Environment Affect Health and Well-Being? A Systematic Review

et al. 2018

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In times of rapid urbanization, health and well-being of citizens is increasingly recognized as a challenge. A remarkable amount of research on relations between urban environments and health or well-being has been conducted. To get an insight about the existing measurements on both health combined with well-being, a systematic literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed and ScienceDirect including references until July 2017. To classify the references a conceptual model describing interrelationships between factors that may be associated with health-related urban well-being was used. The keywords "urban", "well-being", and "health" were applied together with factors described in the model. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria. Of these, most studies focused on associations between urban green, health and well-being showing the great importance of green space usage in urban settings to promote better health and well-being. Health was mostly assessed by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12); to measure well-being, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) was mostly used. There are still only a few studies investigating the great complexity of urban health and well-being. More specifically, there is a lack in interdisciplinary approaches that highlight the complexity of urban structures and dynamics and their possible influence on urban health and well-being.

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“…Yet much of the available evidence on associations between neighbourhood characteristics, the PA environment and resident activity has been cross-sectional, [9,[19][20][21] and few studies [22][23][24][25][26][27] have assessed health outcomes, including PA, on the same residents both before and after a substantial change in the physical environment. Thus, it is still unclear whether self-selection biases are responsible for the significant associations between features of the environment and health outcomes, or whether there are specific neighbourhood characteristics that may lead (causally) to health or health behavior improvements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Results from a natural experiment: initial neighbourhood investments do not change objectively-assessed physical activity, psychological distress or perceptions of the neighbourhood

Dubowitz

Dastidar

Richardson

et al. 2019

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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Background: Few studies have assessed objectively measured physical activity (PA), active transportation, psychological distress and neighborhood perceptions among residents of a neighborhood before and after substantial improvements in its physical environment. Also, most research-to-date has employed study designs subject to neighborhood selection, which may introduce bias in reported findings. We built upon a previously enrolled cohort of households from two low-income predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighborhoods, matched on socio-demographic composition including race/ethnicity, income and education. One of the two neighborhoods received substantial neighborhood investments over the course of this study including, but not limited to public housing development and greenspace/landscaping. We implemented a natural experiment using matched intervention and control neighborhoods and conducted pre-post assessments among the cohort. Our comprehensive assessments included accelerometry-based PA, active transportation, psychological distress and perceptions of the neighborhood, with assessments conducted both prior to and following the neighborhood changes. In 2013, we collected data from 1003 neighborhood participants and in 2016, we re-interviewed 676 of those participants. We conducted an intent to treat analysis, with a difference-indifference estimator using attrition weighting to account for nonresponse between 2013 and 2016. In addition, we derived an individual-level indicator of exposure to neighbourhood investment and estimated effect of exposure to investment on the same set of outcomes using covariate-adjusted models. Results: We observed no statistically significant differences in activity, psychological distress, satisfaction with one's neighborhood as a place to live or any of the other measures we observed prior to and after the neighborhood investments between the intervention and control neighborhoods or those exposed vs not exposed to investments.

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The Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces (PARCS) Study: Protocol of a natural experiment to investigate the impact of citywide park redesign and renovation

Cited by 29 publications

References 61 publications

An Exploration of Psychosocial Pathways of Parks’ Effects on Health: A Qualitative Study

An Exploration of Psychosocial Pathways of Parks’ Effects on Health: A Qualitative Study

How Does the Urban Environment Affect Health and Well-Being? A Systematic Review

Results from a natural experiment: initial neighbourhood investments do not change objectively-assessed physical activity, psychological distress or perceptions of the neighbourhood

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