Public open space, physical activity and public health: Concepts, Methods and Research Agenda — ASN Events
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Public open space, physical activity and public health: Concepts, Methods and Research Agenda (14561)

Javad Koohsari 1 2 , Suzanne Mavoa 1 , Karen Villanueva 1 3 , Takemi Sugiyama 2 4 , Hannah Badland 1 , Andrew T Kaczynski 5 , Neville Owen 2 , Billie Giles-Corti 1
  1. McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. Behavioural Epidemiology Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  4. Social Epidemiology and Evaluation Research Group, Sansom Institute for Health Research & School of Population Health, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
  5. Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

There have been substantial health benefits in engaging in regular physical activity (PA) including reduced risk of obesity and chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. However, population-wide PA participation has consistently declined over the last decades. Given the limited success of individually-based approached in promoting PA, socio-ecological models are gaining popularity among researchers and practitioners. In particular, socio-ecological models emphasise the importance of built environment attributes as facilitators or barriers of PA.

Public open spaces (POSs) such as parks, plazas, and playgrounds are key built environment attributes which can influence people’s PA. People can walk or cycle to these places, or engage in PA within these settings. As such, a growing number of interdisciplinary studies mainly by public health and urban design scholars are examining how different aspects of POSs are associated with PA, including factors such as proximity to, size of, and attractiveness of POS. However, there are several key conceptual, methodological, and practical issues that need to be addressed in POS and PA research

The aim of this study is to present a basis for taking this research agenda forward, through providing an overview of the recent research on POS and PA relationships; identifying the gaps in this literature, and propose detailed suggestions to address these gaps. This can contribute to the limited (but fast-growing) evidence over how to (re)design POS to support different types of PA.

 

Key words: Public open space, Physical activity, Urban design, Neighbourhood, Public health