Individual and environmental factors associated with green exercise in urban and suburban areas.

Riitta Pyky,Marjo Neuvonen,Ann Ojala,Katja Kangas,Liisa Tyrväinen,Timo Lanki,Katja Borodulin

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.11.001

Abstract

In this study, we mainly aimed to explore the associations of personal and socio-demographic factors, and the supply of green areas and built sports facilities with green exercise (GE). We also compared the residents of the core urban area and suburban areas according to the level of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) they had. A population-based sample of 3730 adults (aged 25-101 y) from Finland, filled out a questionnaire in 2015. Variables describing the supply of green areas and built sports facilities were objectively calculated. The green areas were classified into small (<25 ha), middle-sized (25-150 ha) and large (>150 ha) areas to reflect their qualities for GE. The data analysis methods included multinomial logistic regression, t-, and Chi Square tests. Our results indicate that having a short distance to at least a middle-sized green area and high nature relatedness are important for participation in GE, both in core urban and suburban areas. More factors were found to be related to GE in the suburban areas compared to core urban areas and among the low LTPA compared to the high LTPA group.

Highlights

Physical activity (PA) reduces public health costs by preventing many physical and mental diseases, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and breast and colon cancers (Lee et al, 2012; Teychenne et al, 2008)
We compared the residents of the core urban area and suburban areas according to the level of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) they had
Our results indicate that having a short distance to at least a middle-sized green area and high nature relatedness are important for participation in green exercise (GE), both in core urban and suburban areas

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) reduces public health costs by preventing many physical and mental diseases, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and breast and colon cancers (Lee et al, 2012; Teychenne et al, 2008). One possible environmental approach to promote PA is to enhance green exercise (GE) in other words PA that takes place in natural environments, such as in forests, parks and along shores. The presence and number of parks and green spaces have been found to be positively associated with self-rated PA (Astell-Burt et al, 2014a, 2014b; McMorris et al, 2015; Liu et al, 2017). Despite some studies which did not find a direct link (Triguero-Mas et al, 2015; Calogiuri and Chroni, 2014; Ord et al, 2013), a positive association between exposure to green spaces and PA levels is generally identified in previous studies (Bowler et al, 2010)

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