Quality of public urban parks for physical activity practice in Bucaramanga, Colombia

Abstract The characteristics of parks (availability, accessibility, conservation, quality, safety, etc.) are important predictors of their use for physical activity practices. The aim of this study was to verify the association among the socioeconomic level of neighborhoods, the characteristics and quality of urban public parks for physical activity in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Cross-sectional study, conducted in 2015, in which 10 parks with structures for physical activity were evaluated. The socioeconomic level of the district was evaluated based on the neighborhoods around the parks and classified in “low” and “high”. The number of residents in the surrounding area of parks were evaluated with Geographic Information System (GIS), site characteristics and quality with the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) and the Physical Activity Resource Assessment (PARA), respectively. The association was analyzed with Mann Whitney U test and Spearman correlation (rho) on STATA 14 and the significance level was maintained at 5%. A positive association was found between the socioeconomic level and the presence of walking paths (marginal, p=0.056), accessibility (rho=0.875; p=0.001) and general quality of parks (rho=0.657; p=0.039). The low socioeconomic level was associated with the presence of sports courts (p=0.032). These results can guide the actions of public managers for the modification of the built environment and structures of the parks for physical activity.摘要 公园的各项特征（可获得性、可及性、管护状况、品质、安全性等）是影响其作为体育活动场地使用频次的重要预测因子。本研究旨在验证哥伦比亚布卡拉曼加市的街区社会经济水平、城市公共公园的体育活动相关特征与品质三者间的关联。本研究为横断面研究，于2015年开展，共评估了10处设有体育活动设施的公园。研究基于公园周边街区评估其社会经济水平，并划分为“低”与“高”两个层级。借助地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）评估公园周边区域的居民人数，分别采用社区游乐与休闲观察系统（System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities, SOPARC）与体育活动资源评估工具（Physical Activity Resource Assessment, PARA）评估场地特征与品质。采用STATA 14软件中的曼-惠特尼U检验与斯皮尔曼相关分析（rho）对关联关系进行分析，显著性水平设定为5%。研究发现，街区社会经济水平与公园步行道的配置（边际显著，p=0.056）、公园可及性（rho=0.875；p=0.001）及公园整体品质（rho=0.657；p=0.039）呈正相关关系；低社会经济水平与运动球场的配置呈显著相关（p=0.032）。上述研究结果可为公共管理者优化体育活动相关公园的建成环境与设施提供决策参考。