Lower-income
neighborhoods also have fewer free facilities for physical activity, which
may suggest that their residents “have limited ability to control
their physical activity in the face of inaccessible environments,” say
Paul A. Estabrooks, Ph.D., of Kansas State University and colleagues.
The researchers say that two-thirds of the American population does not get
enough physical activity to ward off cardiovascular disease, obesity and other
diseases like diabetes.
Estabrooks and colleagues collected information on the location
and cost for use for 117 physical activity resources across the unnamed
city, including
community and school parks, community centers, health clubs and dance and
martial
art clubs. The city’s identity was not revealed in the study to ensure
that school districts and city recreation departments could contribute information
anonymously.
They then compared this information to a map of neighborhoods of varying socioeconomic
status, identified using census data. The researchers used data such as per
capita income, percentage of unemployed individuals and the percentage of households
living below the poverty line. Based on this information, they classified 32
neighborhoods as having a low, medium or high socioeconomic status.
Neighborhoods on the low and medium end of the socioeconomic status scale
had significantly fewer physical activity resources than high-status neighborhoods.
There were no differences in the total number of resources between low- and
medium-status neighborhoods.
Residents had to pay to use about 36 percent of the resources identified in
the city. There were fewer free activity resources in low- and medium-status
neighborhoods, underscoring the importance of accessibility as well as availability
in these areas, say the researchers.
“Having a fitness facility in the neighborhood might not provide a physical
activity opportunity if it costs too much to use,” Estabrooks says.
Estabrooks and colleagues recommend that city planning agencies and leaders
take steps to make municipal physical activity areas more widely available
and free for use.
The study was published in the Annals of Behavioral
Medicine and supported
by the Kansas State University Office of Community Health.
