Abstract P395: Examining the Relationship Between Physical Activity Resources and Self-reported Vigorous Physical Activity in a Resource-limited Community: Data From the Washington DC Cardiovascular Health and Needs Assessment

Abstract

Background: Despite well-documented evidence that one’s neighborhood environment and resource access are associated with cardiovascular (CV) risk, little is known about how physical activity (PA) resource access availability and type are related to vigorous PA (VPA) in urban communities. Methods: Using cross-sectional data from the Washington DC CV Health and Needs Assessment, a sample of 37 black adults living in low-income, limited-resource DC communities, we created one outcome: self-reported VPA hours/week. We used Geographic Information Systems to create three exposure variables: counts of parks, recreation facilities, and private gyms within 800 and 1600-meter (m) line-based road network buffers around homes. We examined the relationship between the three exposures and VPA in models adjusted for demographics (age, sex, and income) and neighborhood factors, including neighborhood deprivation index (NDI), neighborhood environment perception (NEP), or walk score (WS), separately. Results: Participants (mean age=57.65 years) reported a mean VPA hr/wk of 3.46. After separately adjusting for neighborhood factors, greater availability of parks within 800m and 1600m positively associated with VPA (p<0.01) (Table). Positive associations between recreation facilities and VPA were found with 1600m buffer (p<0.05), but not 800m. Private gyms had the weakest relationship with VPA. When considering WS, only the relationship with parks remained significant. Conclusions: Increased availability of parks was positively related to VPA, even after adjusting for NDI, NEP or WS. However, relationships were not as robust for recreation facilities and private gyms, perhaps due to higher likelihood of barriers to use or limited availability in these communities. Our findings suggest that DC public health professionals should consider prioritizing increased availability of PA resources, especially parks, to promote PA and ultimately improve CV health outcomes for residents within limited-resource communities.