Active Living Research

The shared use of school recreational facilities holds the potential to offer activity opportunities for many people, especially those in low-income, minority, and under-resourced communities. School facilities are usually easily accessible and offer safe, free or low cost, and convenient recreation and sport opportunities. However, a number of barriers—including fear of liability, maintenance issues, vandalism and crime concerns, scheduling conflicts, and costs of operation—exist that are keeping facilities from being shared. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits of shared use of school recreational facilities with partner organizations and to provide examples of such partnerships, potential barriers, and recommendations for addressing challenges. This article describes the creative process that led to this work's success.

PURPOSE: To provide a synthesis of research on trails and physical activity from the public health, leisure sciences, urban planning, and transportation literatures. METHODS: A search of databases was conducted to identify studies published between 1980 and 2008. RESULTS: 52 studies were identified. The majority were cross-sectional (92%) and published after 1999 (77%). The evidence for the effects of trails on physical activity was mixed among 3 intervention and 5 correlational studies. Correlates of trail use were examined in 13 studies. Several demographic (eg, race, education, income) and environmental factors (eg, land-use mix and distance to trail) were related to trail use. Evidence from 31 descriptive studies identified several facilitators and barriers to trail use. Economic studies (n = 5) examining trails in terms of health or recreational outcomes found trails are cost-effective and produce significant economic benefits. CONCLUSION: There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating important factors that should be considered in promoting trail use, yet the evidence for positive effects of trails on physical activity is limited. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of trails on physical activity. In addition, trail studies that include children and youth, older adults, and racial and ethnic minorities are a research priority.

In recent decades, many metropolitan areas in the United States have experienced a decline in the population of urban centers and rapid growth in the suburbs, with new schools being built outside of cities and existing urban schools facing closure. These new schools are increasingly larger and farther from residences; in contrast, urban school facilities are often in closer proximity to homes but are also in dire need of upgrading or modernization. This eye-opening book explores the compelling health and economic rationales for new approaches to school siting, including economic savings to school districts, transportation infrastructure needs, and improved child health. An essential examination of public policy issues associated with school siting, this compiled volume will assist policy makers and help the public understand why it is important for government and school districts to work together on school siting and capital expenditures and how these new outlooks will improve local and regional outcomes.

Little is known about the levels of air pollution at public parks where regular exercise takes place or in park-adjacent neighborhoods where people have easy access to parks. In this study we investigated the ambient concentrations of criteria pollutants nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), fine particulate (PM(2.5)) and ozone (O(3)) at public parks and in park-adjacent neighborhoods for metropolitan Los Angeles. Socioeconomic and racial-ethnic inequalities in exposure to the three criteria pollutants were also investigated using multiple linear regression models. In addition, differences in inhalation doses from breathing the three +criteria pollutants were investigated for the top and bottom quartile racial composition in the parks and neighborhoods. Our research showed that although public parks had on average the lowest pollutant concentrations of NO(2) and PM(2.5), they had relatively high O(3) concentrations. Park-adjacent neighborhoods, by contrast, had the highest NO(2) and PM(2.5) concentrations, but the lowest O(3) concentrations. Higher exposures to NO(2) and PM(2.5) were systematically identified for the lower socioeconomic position or higher minority population neighborhoods. For children and adolescents aged 6-15 engaging in high and moderate intensity activities in and around public parks, those from the top quartile of primarily Hispanic neighborhoods had much higher (63%) inhaled doses of NO(2) compared to the bottom quartile counterpart. PM(2.5) showed a similar but less pronounced pattern of inhalation doses. Evidence of socioeconomic and racial-ethnic gradients was found in air pollution exposure and inhalation doses in and around the urban parks in Los Angeles. This suggests that patterns of exposure inequality found in other environmental justice research are present in exposures in and around urban parks.

This article describes linkages between urban planning, the natural environment, and human health. Historical context is provided by a presentation of how the field of urban planning has affected the form and character of residential environments as well as the ways and extent to which occupants have had access to natural environments over the past century and a half in the United States. Next, a summary of the state of the evidence connecting the natural environment to human health, on both an individual and a community level, is provided. Research evidence linking nature with both health and health behavior outcomes such as physical health, physical activity, community social well-being, and cognitive functioning is presented. Lastly, emerging trends are described, uniting planning, the natural environment, and public health in an effort to ensure a healthier future.

This article examines the importance of green residential environments to the health and well-being of older adults. The authors place the connection between health and the environment in a historical context and review evidence specifically related to the health of older adults. The authors compare the criteria for green housing and healthy housing and also examine emerging trends related to green senior housing and neighborhoods, including elder cohousing, the sustainable sites initiative, and assessment of health impact.

Although planning decisions have profound public-health implications, planning-health linkages have received relatively little attention in recent decades. Moreover, on the few occasions when such connections have been made, health outcomes have been narrowly construed, ignoring a wide array of well-documented linkages between the physical environment and human health. Planning decisions directly influence the character and quality of housing and neighborhoods including the external density of communities, the presence and size of parks, air and water quality, land-use mix, the height and size of residential structures, transit-mode mix, traffic density, retail-store location, road geometry, and community noise levels. Environmental characteristics of home and neighborhood, in turn, directly or indirectly affect physical health and psychological well-being. This paper presents a framework for considering the impact of planning decisions on a wide range of health issues. Empirical data from medical and social sciences illustrate connections between health outcomes among residents and residential-environment characteristics influenced by planning. This paper presents a critical summary of the current knowledge and the quality of the evidence. Where appropriate, we also note theoretically plausible leverage points where planning decisions may affect health, but which require further research to test their effects on health-related outcomes.

The objective of the research was to assess how proximity to parks and recreational resources affects the development of childhood obesity through a longitudinal study. Data were collected on 3173 children aged 9-10 from 12 communities in Southern California in 1993 and 1996. Children were followed for eight years to collect longitudinal information, including objectively measured body mass index (BMI). Multilevel growth curve models were used to assess associations between attained BMI growth at age 18 and numerous environmental variables, including park space and recreational program access. For park acres within a 500 m distance of children's homes, there were significant inverse associations with attained BMI at age 18. Effect sizes were larger for boys than for girls. Recreation programs within a 10 km buffer of children's homes were significantly and inversely associated with achieved levels in BMI at age 18, with effect sizes for boys also larger than those for girls. We conclude that children with better access to parks and recreational resources are less likely to experience significant increases in attained BMI.

BACKGROUND: A growing number of studies have examined correlates of walking-to/from-school behaviors. However, the potential differences across neighborhoods have been understudied. To address this knowledge gap, this study compared 4 elementary school settings (low-income inner-city; mid- to low-income, urban with and without freeway in attendance area; and high-income suburban) in Austin, Texas. METHODS: Parental surveys (n = 680, response rate = 25%) were analyzed using binary logistic regressions to identify correlates of walking to/from school for each setting. Five focus groups were conducted with 15 parents and analyzed using content analysis to supplement the survey results. RESULTS: Parents' personal barrier was the only consistently significant variable across 4 settings (OR = 0.113-0.463, P < .05). Parental education showed contrasting results between the suburban setting (OR = 3.895, P < .01) and the urban setting with freeway presence (OR = 0.568, P < .05). Personal attitude and walking habit had lower explanatory power in lower-income settings than in the higher-income site. But sociodemographic, physical environment, and safety conditions had greater explanatory power in lower-income settings. Freeway barrier was significant in the inner-city setting (OR = 0.029, P < .05) and the urban setting with freeway presence (OR = 0.142, P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in correlates of walking-to/from-school behaviors were found across the 4 elementary school settings, suggesting the importance of context-sensitive approaches in future research and practice.