Quality of public urban parks for physical activity practice in Bucaramanga, Colombia

Paula Camila Ramirez,Vanesa Quiroga,Olga Lucia Sarmiento,Rogério César Fermino,Ana Paola Rios,Diana Marina Camargo

doi:10.5007/1980-0037.2017v19n4p480

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2017v19n4p480 The characteristics of parks (availability, accessibility, conservation, quality, safety, etc.) are important predictors of their use for physical activity practices. The aim of this study was to verify the association among the socioeconomic level of neighborhoods, the characteristics and quality of urban public parks for physical activity in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Cross-sectional study, conducted in 2015, in which 10 parks with structures for physical activity were evaluated. The socioeconomic level of the district was evaluated based on the neighborhoods around the parks and classified in “low” and “high”. The number of residents in the surrounding area of parks were evaluated with Geographic Information System (GIS), site characteristics and quality with the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) and the Physical Activity Resource Assessment (PARA), respectively. The association was analyzed with Mann Whitney U test and Spearman correlation (rho) on STATA 14 and the significance level was maintained at 5%. A positive association was found between the socioeconomic level and the presence of walking paths (marginal, p=0.056), accessibility (rho=0.875; p=0.001) and general quality of parks (rho=0.657; p=0.039). The low socioeconomic level was associated with the presence of sports courts (p=0.032). These results can guide the actions of public managers for the modification of the built environment and structures of the parks for physical activity.

Highlights

Characteristics of the built environment are positively associated with leisure time physical activity[1]
This is important, once in Colombia (Bogotá) it was found that 55% of the population uses parks and plazas for physical activity and, that the use of these spaces can increase in 310% the likelihood of reaching the recommendations of physical activity for health, in leisure time[5]
The low socioeconomic level was associated to the presence of sports courts (p=0.032)

Summary

Introduction

Characteristics of the built environment are positively associated with leisure time physical activity[1] In this sense, the access to locations such as parks, plazas and bicycle routes becomes important for the development of active healthy lifestyles in the population[2,3,4,5]. Evidence shows that living in areas of low socioeconomic level is inversely associate to physical activity, which could be explained by lack of adequate spaces for practice[13,14,15] This is important, once in Colombia (Bogotá) it was found that 55% of the population uses parks and plazas for physical activity and, that the use of these spaces can increase in 310% the likelihood of reaching the recommendations of physical activity for health, in leisure time[5]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion