Journal ArticleDOI
System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC): Reliability and Feasibility Measures
TLDR
SOPARC is a reliable and feasible instrument for assessing physical activity and associated contextual data in community settings and met acceptable criteria for area contexts.Abstract:
Background: New tools are needed to examine physical activity and the contexts in which it occurs. Community parks contribute to physical activity, but measuring activity and associated variables in them is challenging because area contexts change and the numbers and characteristics of users are highly variable. Methods: We developed SOPARC (System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities) and tested its use by observing 16,244 individuals in 165 park areas. Reliabilities included 472 simultaneous measures by independent observers. Results: Correlations between observers on number of area participants was 0.99 for female and male park users. Reliabilities (i.e., percent agreement) for age (89%, females; 85%, males), race/ethnic (80%, females; 82%, males), and activity level (80%, females; 88%, males) groupings met acceptable criteria. Reliabilities for area contexts (i.e., usable, accessible, supervised, organized, equipped) exceeded 94%. Conclusions: SOPARC is a reliable and feasible instrument for assessing physical activity and associated contextual data in community settings.read more
Citations
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Challenges in conducting natural experiments in parks—lessons from the REVAMP study
Jenny Veitch,Jo Salmon,Billie Giles-Corti,David Crawford,Kate Dullaghan,Alison Carver,Anna Timperio +6 more
TL;DR: Challenges involved in conducting natural experiments in park settings are discussed, focussing on issues that may help design more effective future evaluations of the impact of park refurbishment.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Recreovía of Bogotá, a Community-Based Physical Activity Program to Promote Physical Activity among Women: Baseline Results of the Natural Experiment Al Ritmo de las Comunidades
TL;DR: The Recreovía is a promising strategy to promote park use and PA, especially among women who are less likely to meet PA recommendations during their leisure time and the provision of a cost-free community program may be an effective approach and a good investment for health.
Journal ArticleDOI
Use of emerging technologies to assess differences in outdoor physical activity in st. Louis, missouri.
TL;DR: Online public web data feeds are analyzed to assess differences in outdoor PA by neighborhood SES in St. Louis and show that a majority of running and walking routes occur in or at least traverse through a park, however, this finding does not hold when comparing low-SES neighborhoods to higher-S ES neighborhoods in St Louis.
Journal ArticleDOI
Come together, play, be active: Physical activity engagement of school-age children at Play Streets in four diverse rural communities in the U.S.
M. Renée Umstattd Meyer,Christina N. Bridges Hamilton,Tyler Prochnow,Megan E. McClendon,Kimberly T. Arnold,Emily Wilkins,Gabriel A. Benavidez,Tiffany D. Williams,Christiaan G. Abildso,Keshia M. Pollack Porter +9 more
TL;DR: Play Streets are a promising intervention for promoting active play among children that lack safe opportunities to be active in rural communities but have the potential to address challenges residents face accessing safe physical activity opportunities in these areas.
The Invisible Walls of The 606: An Examination of the Relationship Between an Urban Greenway and Community Change
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of an URBAN GREENWAY on crime in Chicago was examined. But the focus was not on the crime rate, but on the effect of the greenway on the number of people crossing it.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Compendium of physical activities: an update of activity codes and MET intensities.
Barbara E. Ainsworth,William L. Haskell,Melicia C. Whitt,Melinda L. Irwin,A. M. Swartz,Scott J. Strath,O'Brien Wl,David R. Bassett,Kathryn H. Schmitz,Patricia O. Emplaincourt,David R. Jacobs,Arthur S. Leon +11 more
TL;DR: An updated version of the Compendium of Physical Activities, a coding scheme that classifies specific physical activity (PA) by rate of energy expenditure, is provided to enhance the comparability of results across studies using self-reports of PA.
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The continuing epidemics of obesity and diabetes in the United States.
TL;DR: The prevalence of obesity and diabetes continues to increase among US adults, and interventions are needed to improve physical activity and diet in communities nationwide.
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Environmental factors associated with adults' participation in physical activity: a review
TL;DR: Physical environment factors have consistent associations with physical activity behavior and further development of ecologic and environmental models, together with behavior-specific and context-specific measurement strategies, should help in further understanding of these associations.
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Environmental and policy interventions to promote physical activity
TL;DR: In this article, a model describing the development of policy and environmental interventions is proposed, in the hope of stimulating more research in this area, and two studies showed that placing signs encouraging stair use can be effective.
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The significance of parks to physical activity and public health: a conceptual model.
TL;DR: A conceptual model is proposed to guide thinking and suggest hypotheses about the relationships between park benefits, park use, and physical activity, and the antecedents/correlates of park use that focus on park environmental characteristics that could be related to physical activity.