Brief reportPark Improvements and Park Activity: A Natural Experiment
Introduction
Exposure to parks has a positive effect on health,1, 2 and parks are important settings for physical activity.3 It is important to understand how to attract residents to parks and encourage park users to be physically active, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods where residents are at an increased risk of inactivity and associated poor health.4, 5, 6 Observational studies in the U.S. have shown that more than half of park users engage in sedentary behavior (i.e., primarily sitting) in the park.7, 8 Further, park aesthetics and specific features have been shown to be associated with park visitation and physical activity within the park.9, 10, 11, 12
Natural experiments are a research priority for investigating causal associations between the built environment and physical activity.13 Because of the financial costs and logistic challenges, research in this area is scarce,14, 15 and few studies have focused on neighborhood parks.16 An opportunity to conduct a natural experiment in Victoria, Australia, presented through collaboration with a local government that was planning to improve a neighborhood park. This represented an opportunity to examine whether improvements to park facilities and amenities led to changes in (1) park use; (2) the active (or sedentary) nature of activities undertaken in the park; and (3) whether any observed changes were maintained over time.
Section snippets
Methods
A park was refurbished (intervention park) and identical measures were conducted at the intervention park (size: 25,200 m2) and a control park (size: 10,000 m2) before and after park refurbishment. Pre-refurbishment, the intervention park was primarily an open space area with few amenities. The refurbishment took place in November–December 2009 and included the establishment of a fenced leash-free area for dogs (12,800 m2); an all-abilities playground; a 365-m walking track; a barbecue area;
Results
Table 1 shows the counts of park users. There was a significant interaction between park and time for the total counts of park users, F(2, 154)=14.99, p<0.0005; counts of people walking in the park, F(2, 154)=11.70, p<0.0005; and counts of people being vigorously active, F(2, 154)=4.98, p=0.008. At the intervention park, there were more people observed in the park at T2 and T3, compared to T1; however, at the control park, there were fewer people observed at T3 compared to T2 and no differences
Discussion
The current study demonstrated that improving an existing park resulted in an overall increase in park use across genders and all age groups, and an increase in the counts of park users walking and being vigorously active. Importantly, increases were observed immediately post-intervention, with further increases observed at T3, demonstrating that visits to the refurbished park continued to increase over time. The current results are consistent with U.S. studies14, 15 that observed increases in
References (19)
- et al.
Park-based physical activity in diverse communities of two U.S. citiesAn observational study
Am J Prev Med
(2008) - et al.
Features of public open spaces and physical activity among children: findings from the CLAN study
Prev Med
(2008) - et al.
Study designs and analytic strategies for environmental and policy research on obesity, physical activity, and diet: recommendations from a meeting of experts
Am J Prev Med
(2009) - et al.
Urban trails and physical activity: a natural experiment
Am J Prev Med
(2010) - et al.
Making the playfields even: evaluating the impact of an environmental intervention on park use and physical activity
Prev Med
(2009) - et al.
Effects of park improvements on park use and physical activity: policy and programming implications
Am J Prev Med
(2009) - et al.
Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation?
J Epidemiol Community Health
(2006) - et al.
Greenspace, urbanity and health: relationships in England
J Epidemiol Community Health
(2007) - et al.
An introduction to parks, recreation, and public health: collaborative frameworks for promoting physical activity
J Phys Act Health
(2007)
Cited by (153)
How does multiscale greenspace exposure affect human health? Evidence from urban parks in the central city of Beijing
2024, Journal of Environmental ManagementOlder adults’ heterogeneous preferences for climate-proof urban blue-green spaces: A case of Chengdu, China
2023, Urban Forestry and Urban GreeningImpacts of perceived safety and beauty of park environments on time spent in parks: Examining the potential of street view imagery and phone-based GPS data
2022, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and GeoinformationFrom urban greenspace to health behaviors: An ecosystem services-mediated perspective
2022, Environmental Research