Influence of Public Parks on Physical Activity Levels of Diverse Communities

Parks and Physical Activity in Diverse Communities

Engaging in physical activity is an important health behavior for maintaining good health and preventing disease. Public parks offer community members readily accessible areas for recreation and exercise. Modifying park programs and facilities to meet the specific needs of community members may encourage people to engage in more physical activity. Furthermore, using feedback from the community might be the best way to determine how park funds should be allocated for modifications. This study will compare two approaches to park programming and will determine which approach is best at increasing physical activity within the community.

Regular physical activity, such as walking, running, or biking, is known to have substantial health benefits. Exercise is important not only in weight management, but also in reducing the risk of certain diseases and promoting psychological well being. In fact, each year about 1.9 million deaths are attributed to physical inactivity, making programs to promote increased physical activity a public health priority. Public parks are easily accessible recreational areas, and they provide beneficial places to implement programs that encourage physical activity among community members. Using information on park use and assessments of community feedback may help improve park outreach, programming, and features aimed to increase physical activity in the community. This study will compare two approaches to park programming and will determine which approach is best at increasing physical activity within the community. The first approach is CBPR, a research program that involves community members in scientific and systematic park assessments that are then analyzed to guide park programming. The second approach simply provides park utilization and community feedback data to park directors to guide park programming.

Park participation in this study will last 1 year. Participating parks will be assigned randomly to one of three conditions:

• Parks assigned to Condition 1 will participate in CBPR, which will include assessments of observations and surveys about park programs and facilities. Anonymous members of the surrounding community will be involved in the assessments, which will be conducted at baseline and Year 1.
• Parks assigned to Condition 2 will receive the director-only condition. These parks will not take part in any assessments, but park directors will be provided with park utilization data, community feedback, and ways to improve park features to increase physical activity.
• Parks assigned to Condition 3 will receive the control condition and will not take part in the assessments or be provided with park utilization data and community feedback.

Administrative data about parks and park functions will also be collected from all participating parks.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Neighborhood park with an advisory board
• Park director who is willing to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Park that is NOT a neighborhood park