Factors That Are Associated With Physical Activity Among Visitors To Urban National Parks: Are There Group Differences

Abstract

Research results indicate that optimal levels of physical activity (PA) yield a wide variety of beneficial health outcomes. There are, however, marked disparities between racial/ethnic groups in meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Urban national parks, especially those near communities of color, offer opportunities to encourage MVPA among their visitors. Nonetheless, research to identify facilitators and barriers to PA in these settings is limited and warrants further investigation. We aimed to identify psychosocial factors (e.g. self-efficacy, self-regulation, outcome expectancies, and social support) and perceived characteristics of a park (i.e. the social and physical environment) that are associated with an active park visit. Additionally, this investigation determined if the likelihood of an active visit was associated with visitor sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. race/ethnicity or age), group composition and weather.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 15, 2015
Accession Number
AD1012739

Entities

People

  • Juleon Rabbani

Organizations

  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena
  • Computer Programs
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Geography
  • Health Services
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Science
  • Medical Personnel
  • Minority Groups
  • Native Americans
  • Psychology
  • Recreation
  • Sociology
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Surveys
  • United States
  • Urban Areas

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