Abstract
A Play Street is a street that is reserved for children’s safe play for a specific period during school vacations. It was hypothesized that a Play Street near children’s home can increase their moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) and decrease their sedentary time. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Play Streets on children’s MVPA and sedentary time.A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used to determine the effects of Play Streets on children’s MVPA and sedentary time. Data were collected in Ghent during July and August 2013. The study sample consisted of 126 children (54 from Play streets, 72 from control streets). Children wore an accelerometer for 8 consecutive days and their parents fill out a questionnaire before and after the measurement period. During the intervention, streets were enclosed and reserved for children’s play. Four-level (neighborhood – household – child – time of measurement (no intervention or during intervention)) linear regression models were conducted in MLwiN to determine intervention effects.Positive intervention effects were found for sedentary time (β = -0.76 ± 0.39; χ2 = 3.9; p = 0.05) and MVPA (β = 0.82 ± 0.43; χ2 = 3.6; p = 0.06). Between 14h00 and 19h00, MVPA from children living in Play Streets increased from 27 minutes during normal conditions to 36 minutes during the Play Street intervention, whereas control children’s MVPA decreased from 27 to 24 minutes. Sedentary time from children living in the Play Street decreased from 146 minutes during normal conditions to 138 minutes during the Play Street intervention, whereas control children’s sedentary time increased from 156 minutes to 165 minutes. The intervention effects on MVPA (β = -0.62 ± 0.25; χ2 = 6.3; p = 0.01) and sedentary time (β = 0.85 ± 0.0.33; χ2 = 6.6; p = 0.01) remained significant when the effects were investigated during the entire day, indicating that children did not compensate for their increased MVPA and decreased sedentary time, during the rest of the day.Creating a safe play space near urban children’s home by the Play Street intervention is effective in increasing children’s MVPA and decreasing their sedentary time.
Highlights
Physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits in children [1]
81% of the children lived in the Play Street, whereas 19% of the children lived nearby the Play Street
Parents whose children played in the Play Street indicated that their children mainly engaged in active games (78.1%), ball games (61.3%) or cycling (67.7%) and less in organized activities (25.8%), board games (6.5%) or reading (3.2%)
Summary
Physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits in children [1]. Children are encouraged to engage at least in 60 minutes of daily moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) [3] and to limit their sedentary time [4]. Despite the health benefits of engaging in sufficient physical activity and limiting sedentary time, many children do not meet the Physical activity guidelines and spend too much time sedentary [3]. Accessibility to screen-based activities, such as television, video games and computers/Internet, has largely increased, leading to higher levels of sedentary time in children [5]. Children’s active outdoor play can significantly contribute to their MVPA [6,7], but compared to previous generations, children play less outside nowadays [8].
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