142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

311308
Connection between neighborhood parks and leisure-time physical activity among adult Mexican women: A multilevel analysis in Hermosillo, Mexico

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Maria Garcia Perez, PhD , School of Transborder Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Francisco Lara-Valencia, PhD , School of Transborder Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, AZ
A growing number of studies have shown that active living constitutes a long term remedy to the rising rates of obesity and related risk of chronic disease incidence affecting nations across the globe. Many of these studies highlight the positive relationship between neighborhoods green space and leisure time physical activity among residents, which may result in better health outcomes. Regrettably, the number of studies examining the connection between green space and active living in developing countries is negligible. This study examines the effect of neighborhoods’ public parks on leisure-time physical activity among adult women in a mid-size Mexican city. The analysis links two measures of physical activity extracted from a probabilistic sample of women aged 25-54 (n=1285) to data on parks and social deprivation at the neighborhood level. Through multilevel logistic regression modeling, it was established that participation in physical activity is invariant across neighborhoods when different measures of park availability and accessibility are included in the model. Neighborhood deprivation was the only contextual variable with a significant effect on the level of leisure-time physical activity. Other built environmental factors, such as crime levels and local land uses, could be mediating the connection between women’s physical activity and neighborhood parks. These findings highlight the need to conduct place-based assessments as a precondition for the design of cost-effective interventions promoting women’s physical activity in cities of developing nations and other contexts.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
Describe whether neighborhood-level factors, particularly park accessibility and availability, along with women’s individual characteristics are independent predictors of women’s leisure-time physical activity among reproductive age women in northern Mexico

Keyword(s): Built Environment, Physical Activity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Hilda Garcia-Perez received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Michigan and a master degree in Population Studies from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico. She is an assistant professor of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on women’s health, community development and disease prevention in urban areas of northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest borderlands.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.