Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 51, Issue 2, August 2010, Pages 148-152
Preventive Medicine

Greenspace and children's physical activity: A GPS/GIS analysis of the PEACH project

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2010.06.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To quantify the volume and intensity of children's physical activity after school in greenspace and elsewhere.

Methods

Data were collected between 2006 and 2008 from 1,307 children aged 10–11 in Bristol, UK. Accelerometers and Global Positioning System receivers measured activity and location every 10 s (epoch) after school for four days. Data were mapped in a Geographic Information System with a greenspace dataset. Activity volume (accelerometer counts per minute), time in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and the odds of an epoch being MVPA (using logistic regression) were compared for greenspace, non-greenspace and indoors.

Results

13% of monitored time was spent outdoors (2% in greenspace), during which time 30% of activity volume and 35% of MVPA was accumulated. 7% of boys' activity volume and 9% of MVPA were in greenspace with girls slightly lower (5% and 6% respectively). The odds of an epoch being MVPA in greenspace relative to outdoor non-greenspace was 1.37 (95% CI 1.22–1.53) for boys and 1.08 (95% CI 0.95–1.22) for girls.

Conclusion

Most activity occurring outdoors is not in greenspace and non-green urban environments are therefore very important for children's activity. However, when boys are in greenspace, activity is more likely to be of higher intensity.

Introduction

Physical activity is associated with positive health among children and adults, but evidence suggests that many children do not meet activity guidelines (Department of Health, 2004, van Sluijs et al., 2008). Increasing physical activity among children is therefore a key objective for 21st century public health (Department of Health, 2005, Department of Health, 2009). Since physical activity behaviours developed during childhood are likely to be continued into adulthood (Kjonniksen et al., 2008), addressing the activity deficit of many present-day children (Craig and Mindell, 2008) could bring significant current and future health benefits.

The concept of “obesogenic” environments–encouraging low physical activity and poor nutrition–has gained considerable attention (Jones et al., 2007, Ogilvie et al., 2008). A variety of area characteristics have been considered as potential influences on physical activity behaviour. For example, “walkability” (including housing density, street intersection density, landuse mix) has been associated with greater adult physical activity (Van Dyck et al., 2009). The same study suggested that residents in areas of high socio-economic status are less likely to walk for transport purposes. Another study found that areas with higher traffic volumes had lower rates of leisure cycling (Foster et al., 2009).

The type of land use available for recreational and functional purposes, especially the availability of greenspace, may also affect activity patterns. Greenspace is defined as “Open, undeveloped land with natural vegetation” (CDC, 2009), such as woodland and parks. Much of the research on greenspace and physical activity has only considered adults, and it is likely that children's use of neighbourhood environments differs from adults (Davison and Lawson, 2006). A review of environmental correlates of youth physical activity found limited evidence of associations with neighbourhood factors (Ferreira et al., 2007). However, the weakness of these associations may in part be due to limitations in the measurement of access to/use of greenspace, with many studies using proxy measures such as the total area of greenspace within a certain distance of a participant's home.

Affordable personal Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are a relatively recent innovation (Rodriguez et al., 2005). In combination with activity measurement using accelerometers, GPS permits objective measurement of the locations in which activity occurs, allowing quantitative study of physical activity environments (Maddison and Ni Mhurchu, 2009). A recent study of 100 children overlaid GPS data with landcover data in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to investigate activity levels in different landcover types (Jones et al., 2009). Amongst urban children, most bouts of physical activity occurred in gardens and the street, whilst for rural children farmland and grassland were the most common settings.

Few studies have quantified use of greenspace and physical activity in a large sample of children. In this study we used GPS and accelerometer data from the PEACH (Personal and Environmental Associations with Children's Health) project (Cooper et al., 2010, Page et al., 2009) to investigate variations in children's physical activity in greenspace, outdoors in non-greenspace and indoors.

Section snippets

Methods

The PEACH project recruited 1,307 pupils in year 6 (age 10–11 years) from 23 state primary schools across Bristol, UK. The methodology has been previously described (Page et al., 2009). Activity and location data were collected from each participant using an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer (Corder et al., 2007) and a Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS receiver (GPSr) (Rodriguez et al., 2005), recording data at 10-s epochs. Participants were asked to wear the accelerometer for 7 consecutive days and the GPSr

Results

After applying exclusion criteria, 1053 pupils provided 2483 pupil-days of data, incorporating 93% of all GPS datapoints, and 81% of 1307 study participants. The 254 excluded pupils were very similar in age to those included (mean age for both groups 10.9 years, p = 0.91), but were slightly more likely to be male (58% versus 47% male, p < 0.01). Those excluded also lived in marginally more deprived areas (mean IMD 2007 score 29.3 versus 26.8, p = 0.05), but there was no difference in BMI between those

Discussion

We have used new, robust methodologies to demonstrate that among 10- to 11-year-old children less than 15% of time after-school is spent outdoors, but 30% of activity volume and 35% of MVPA occur outdoors. Most outdoors activity occurs in areas not classified as greenspace, but activity tends to be more intense in greenspace relative to non-greenspace, particularly for boys. Logistic regression analyses demonstrate that after adjustment for potential confounders, time in greenspace is over 5

Conclusions

Time in greenspace is associated with greater activity intensity amongst children, but the majority of their outdoor activity volume occurs outside of greenspaces. Both green and non-green urban environments may therefore be very important for children's physical activity.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to the participants and their families who gave their time to the study. We would also like to acknowledge all members of the PEACH Project team not listed as co-authors of this paper. This work was supported by the National Prevention Research Initiative [G0501311] and World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF UK). BWW was funded by the UKCRC DECIPHer Centre. The Generalised Land Use Database was supplied by the Department for Communities and Local Government. We

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    Present address: Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Exeter, Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3HD, UK.

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