Access to Recreational Physical Activities by Car and Bus: An Assessment of Socio-Spatial Inequalities in Mainland Scotland

Neil S Ferguson,David Ogilvie,Karen E Lamb,Yang Wang,Anne Ellaway,M Maria Glymour

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055638

Neil S Ferguson, David Ogilvie + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055638

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Abstract

Obesity and other chronic conditions linked with low levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with deprivation. One reason for this could be that it is more difficult for low-income groups to access recreational PA facilities such as swimming pools and sports centres than high-income groups. In this paper, we explore the distribution of access to PA facilities by car and bus across mainland Scotland by income deprivation at datazone level. GIS car and bus networks were created to determine the number of PA facilities accessible within travel times of 10, 20 and 30 minutes. Multilevel negative binomial regression models were then used to investigate the distribution of the number of accessible facilities, adjusting for datazone population size and local authority. Access to PA facilities by car was significantly (p<0.01) higher for the most affluent quintile of area-based income deprivation than for most other quintiles in small towns and all other quintiles in rural areas. Accessibility by bus was significantly lower for the most affluent quintile than for other quintiles in urban areas and small towns, but not in rural areas. Overall, we found that the most disadvantaged groups were those without access to a car and living in the most affluent areas or in rural areas.

Highlights

There is a growing body of evidence linking low levels of physical activity with obesity and a range of preventable chronic conditions, the prevalences of which are known to increase with increasing deprivation [1]
In this study we found that in absolute terms, the accessibility by car of recreational Physical activity (PA) facilities in Scotland greatly exceeded that by bus, and that this difference was more pronounced for lower travel time thresholds where access and egress times constituted a greater proportion of total bus travel time
We found that remote areas and, to a lesser extent, accessible rural areas had fewer opportunities to access PA facilities than urban areas and accessible small towns

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing body of evidence linking low levels of physical activity with obesity and a range of preventable chronic conditions, the prevalences of which are known to increase with increasing deprivation [1]. The degree to which the built environment supports or constrains the adoption of a physically active lifestyle has emerged as an important public health consideration in recent years [2] reflecting the critical role that the design and configuration of transport and land use systems may play, alongside personal and social factors, in influencing levels of physical activity. A related branch of research has focussed on the link between PA and access to amenities. These provide opportunities for PA in informal settings such as streets, parks and open spaces or using formal recreational facilities (for example, swimming pools, tennis courts and sports centres) which provide specialised equipment, playing surfaces or other such provision

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