Abstract
Physical and social environments of parks and neighborhoods influence park use, but the extent of their relative influence remains unclear. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between the physical and social environment of parks and both observed and self-reported park use in low-income neighborhoods in New York City. We conducted community- (n = 54 parks) and individual-level (n = 904 residents) analyses. At the community level, observed park use was measured using a validated park audit tool and regressed on the number of facilities and programmed activities in parks, violent crime, stop-and-frisk incidents, and traffic accidents. At the individual level, self-reported park use was regressed on perceived park quality, crime, traffic-related walkability, park use by others, and social cohesion and trust. Data were collected in 2016–2018 and analyzed in 2019–2020. At the community level, observed park use was negatively associated with stop-and-frisk (β = −0.04; SE = 0.02; p < 0.05) and positively associated with the number of park facilities (β = 1.46; SE = 0.57; p < 0.05) and events (β = 0.16; SE = 0.16; p < 0.01). At the individual level, self-reported park use was positively associated with the social cohesion and trust scale (β = 0.02; SE = 0.01; p < 0.05). These results indicate that physical and social attributes of parks, but not perceptions of parks, were significantly associated with park use. The social environment of neighborhoods at both community and individual levels was significantly related to park use. Policies for increasing park use should focus on improving the social environment of parks and surrounding communities, not only parks' physical attributes. These findings can inform urban planning and public health interventions aimed at improving the well-being of residents in low-income communities.
Highlights
There is increasing recognition of the contribution of parks to physical and mental health [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Age Park use frequency in the past 30 days Park dimension Physical environment “I am satisfied with the overall quality of parks in my neighborhood” Social environment “Parks in my neighborhood are used by many people” Neighborhood dimension Physical environment “There is so much traffic along the street I live on [and surrounding streets], that it makes it difficult or unpleasant to walk in my neighborhood” “There are attractive buildings/homes in my neighborhood” Social environment “There is a high crime rate in my neighborhood” Social cohesion and trust score
As cities increasingly adopt policies to invest in parks and public spaces, it is important to consider that the social environment, including social interaction, cohesion and trust, may be just as, if not more, important than the physical design of such places
Summary
There is increasing recognition of the contribution of parks to physical and mental health [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Research on public spaces has shown that both physical and social environments influence whether people use public spaces, and that the presence of people in a place attracts others [24,25,26] These findings have led to ecological approaches in public health, such as the conceptual framework developed by Bedimo-Rung et al [27], which suggests that attributes of the park environment can play an important role in park use. This model has been supported by subsequent studies showing, for example, that the number and type of facilities (physical environment) and programmed activities (social environment) in parks can be positively associated with both self-reported and observed park use [9, 23]
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