Relative contributions of residential neighborhood and activity space recreational open space to physical activity in African American women

Purpose: Exposure to recreational open space may impact adherence to daily recommended amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Though residential neighborhoods are easily measured and commonly studied, the time people spend outside of their  residential neighborhood suggests that opportunities for PA encountered in the larger “activity space” could be influential. This study compared the relative effects of residential neighborhood and activity space recreational open space on MVPA in African American women, positing that greater amounts of recreational open space in the activity space will lead to greater amounts of MVPA.

Methods: Participants (n=101) wore accelerometers and global positioning system (GPS) units on waist straps for seven consecutive days. Applying standard cut-points to the accelerometer activity counts, we derived mean daily minutes of MVPA. The GPS recorded location every thirty seconds, and resultant activity tracks were used to define multiple alternative activity space measures (excluding residential neighborhoods defined as 0.5-mile buffers around the home address): convex hull, 1- and 2-standard deviational ellipses, and 0.25-mile route buffer.  Activity spaces and residential  neighborhoods  were overlaid with land use data on recreational open space. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model minutes MVPA on percentage recreational open space in the activity space and residential neighborhood, controlling for demographics.

Results: While no association was found between percentage of residential neighborhood composed of recreational open space and minutes of MVPA, percentage of recreational open space in the activity space, irrespective of how it was defined, was positively and significantly correlated to minutes of MVPA. Coefficients ranged from 1.75 for the 1-standard deviational ellipse (p=0.001) to 3.51 for the convex hull (p<0.001).

Discussion: Exposure to recreational opportunities within an activity space could significantly influence individuals’ achievement of recommended minutes of MVPA. Exclusive focus on residential  neighborhoods may underestimate environmental contributions to physical activity.