Neighborhood parks boost girls' physical activity levels

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young girls who live within a half-mile of a park are more physically active than those with no parks near their homes, a new study shows.

And the more amenities like tennis or basketball courts, playgrounds, and running tracks in these neighborhood parks, the more vigorously active the girls were, Dr. Deborah A. Cohen of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and colleagues found.

While the current study could not determine whether or not the girls were actually spending time in their local parks, Cohen noted in an interview with Reuters Health, the findings make it clear that environment did play a role in their physical activity levels.

The current study included 1,556 sixth-grade girls living in six US cities. For six days, each wore a device called an accelerometer that measured the amount and intensity of her physical activity. The researchers also mapped out the number of parks near each study participant's home.

Living within a half-mile of a park was tied to increased activity and physical activity rose with the number of parks. However, parks further away from a girl's home had no effect, the researchers found.

For example, a girl who lived within a half-mile of 3.5 parks would be 10 percent more active, on average, than a girl who had no parks in her neighborhood.

The researchers also found that living close to parks with facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and walking paths was associated with even more intense physical activity compared to living near parks without such amenities. Parks with streetlights and floodlights were also linked to more physical activity than unlit parks.

There are two schools of thought on physical activity and environment, Cohen notes; either that a person's surroundings have no effect on physical activity or that aspects of a person's environment -- like living in a neighborhood with no sidewalks or where being outside isn't safe -- play a role.

"This study supports the idea that the environment matters," she said. "If the environment didn't matter, we wouldn't see an association."

Cohen pointed out that 43 percent of girls in the current study had no parks within a half-mile radius of their homes, making it clear that "there's a long way to go" before parks' potentially health-promoting effects are universally available.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, November 2006.