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Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment

Degraded parks in disadvantaged areas are underutilized for recreation, which may impact long-term health. Using a natural experiment, we examined the effects of local government refurbishments to parks (n = 3 intervention; n = 3 comparison) in low socioeconomic areas (LSEA) of Melbourne on park use...

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Autores principales: Dobbinson, Suzanne J., Simmons, Jody, Chamberlain, James A., MacInnis, Robert J., Salmon, Jo, Staiger, Petra K., Wakefield, Melanie, Veitch, Jenny
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7503361/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32825776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176102
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author Dobbinson, Suzanne J.
Simmons, Jody
Chamberlain, James A.
MacInnis, Robert J.
Salmon, Jo
Staiger, Petra K.
Wakefield, Melanie
Veitch, Jenny
author_facet Dobbinson, Suzanne J.
Simmons, Jody
Chamberlain, James A.
MacInnis, Robert J.
Salmon, Jo
Staiger, Petra K.
Wakefield, Melanie
Veitch, Jenny
author_sort Dobbinson, Suzanne J.
collection PubMed
description Degraded parks in disadvantaged areas are underutilized for recreation, which may impact long-term health. Using a natural experiment, we examined the effects of local government refurbishments to parks (n = 3 intervention; n = 3 comparison) in low socioeconomic areas (LSEA) of Melbourne on park use, health behavior, social engagement and psychological well-being. Amenities promoting physical activity and sun protection included walking paths, playground equipment and built shade. Outcomes were measured via systematic observations, and self-report surveys of park visitors over three years. The refurbishments significantly increased park use, while shade use increased only in parks with shade sails. A trend for increased social engagement was also detected. Findings infer improvement of quality, number and type of amenities in degraded parks can substantially increase park use in LSEA. Findings support provision of shade over well-designed playgrounds in future park refurbishments to enhance engagement and sun protection behavior. Further research should identify park amenities to increase physical activity.
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spelling pubmed-75033612020-09-23 Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment Dobbinson, Suzanne J. Simmons, Jody Chamberlain, James A. MacInnis, Robert J. Salmon, Jo Staiger, Petra K. Wakefield, Melanie Veitch, Jenny Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Degraded parks in disadvantaged areas are underutilized for recreation, which may impact long-term health. Using a natural experiment, we examined the effects of local government refurbishments to parks (n = 3 intervention; n = 3 comparison) in low socioeconomic areas (LSEA) of Melbourne on park use, health behavior, social engagement and psychological well-being. Amenities promoting physical activity and sun protection included walking paths, playground equipment and built shade. Outcomes were measured via systematic observations, and self-report surveys of park visitors over three years. The refurbishments significantly increased park use, while shade use increased only in parks with shade sails. A trend for increased social engagement was also detected. Findings infer improvement of quality, number and type of amenities in degraded parks can substantially increase park use in LSEA. Findings support provision of shade over well-designed playgrounds in future park refurbishments to enhance engagement and sun protection behavior. Further research should identify park amenities to increase physical activity. MDPI 2020-08-21 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7503361/ /pubmed/32825776 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176102 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dobbinson, Suzanne J.
Simmons, Jody
Chamberlain, James A.
MacInnis, Robert J.
Salmon, Jo
Staiger, Petra K.
Wakefield, Melanie
Veitch, Jenny
Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title_full Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title_fullStr Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title_full_unstemmed Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title_short Examining Health-Related Effects of Refurbishment to Parks in a Lower Socioeconomic Area: The ShadePlus Natural Experiment
title_sort examining health-related effects of refurbishment to parks in a lower socioeconomic area: the shadeplus natural experiment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7503361/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32825776
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176102
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