title: Associations of neighborhood characteristics with active park use: an observational study in two cities in the USA and Belgium.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Public parks can be an important setting for physical activity promotion, but to increase park use and the activity levels of park users, the crucial attributes related to active park use need to be defined. Not only user characteristics and structural park attributes, but also characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood are important to examine. Furthermore, internationally comparable studies are needed, to find out if similar intervention strategies might be effective worldwide. The main aim of this study was to examine whether the overall number of park visitors and their activity levels depend on study site, neighborhood walkability and neighborhood income.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected in 20 parks in Ghent, Belgium and San Diego, USA. Two trained observers systematically coded park characteristics using the Environmental Assessment of Public Recreation Spaces (EAPRS) tool, and park user characteristics using the System for Observing Play and recreation in Communities (SOPARC) tool. Multilevel multiple regression models were conducted in MLwiN 2.25.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In San Diego parks, activity levels of park visitors and number of vigorously active visitors were higher than in Ghent, while the number of visitors walking and the overall number of park visitors were lower. Neighborhood walkability was positively associated with the overall number of visitors, the number of visitors walking, number of sedentary visitors and mean activity levels of visitors. Neighborhood income was positively associated with the overall number of visitors, but negatively with the number of visitors being vigorously active.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neighborhood characteristics are important to explain park use. Neighborhood walkability-related attributes should be taken into account when promoting the use of existing parks or creating new parks. Because no strong differences were found between parks in high- and low-income neighborhoods, it seems that promoting park use might be a promising strategy to increase physical activity in low-income populations, known to be at higher risk for overweight and obesity.
authors: Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Egmontstraat 5, 1000, Brussels, Belgium. delfien.vandyck@ugent.be
authors: Delfien
authors: D
authors: Van Dyck
authors: James F
authors: JF
authors: Sallis
authors: Greet
authors: G
authors: Cardon
authors: Benedicte
authors: B
authors: Deforche
authors: Marc A
authors: MA
authors: Adams
authors: Carrie
authors: C
authors: Geremia
authors: Ilse
authors: I
authors: De Bourdeaudhuij
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D011998:Recreation / Q000191:economics; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016138:Walking / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
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