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. 2019 Jul 2;18(1):15.
doi: 10.1186/s12942-019-0179-7.

Access to and availability of exercise facilities in Madrid: an equity perspective

Luis Cereijo  1   2   3 , Pedro Gullón  4   5 , Alba Cebrecos  1 , Usama Bilal  6 , Jose Antonio Santacruz  2 , Hannah Badland  3 , Manuel Franco  1   7
Affiliations

Access to and availability of exercise facilities in Madrid: an equity perspective

Luis Cereijo et al. Int J Health Geogr. .

Abstract

Background: Identifying socioeconomic determinants that are associated with access to and availability of exercise facilities is fundamental to supporting physical activity engagement in urban populations, which in turn, may reduce health inequities. This study analysed the relationship between area-level socioeconomic status (SES) and access to, and availability of, exercise facilities in Madrid, Spain.

Methods: Area-level SES was measured using a composite index based on seven sociodemographic indicators. Exercise facilities were geocoded using Google Maps and classified into four types: public, private, low-cost and sessional. Accessibility was operationalized as the street network distance to the nearest exercise facility from each of the 125,427 residential building entrances (i.e. portals) in Madrid. Availability was defined as the count of exercise facilities in a 1000 m street network buffer around each portal. We used a multilevel linear regression and a zero inflated Poisson regression analyses to assess the association between area-level SES and exercise facility accessibility and availability.

Results: Lower SES areas had a lower average distance to the closest facility, especially for public and low-cost facilities. Higher SES areas had higher availability of exercise facilities, especially for private and seasonal facilities.

Conclusion: Public and low-cost exercise facilities were more proximate in low SES areas, but the overall number of facilities was lower in these areas compared with higher SES areas. Increasing the number of exercise facilities in lower SES areas may be an intervention to improve health equity.

Keywords: Exercise; Exercise facilities; Inequities; Socio-economic status; Urban health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Area-level SES and accessibility to nearest exercise facility. Note Distance = logarithm of distance to nearest facility; SES = socio-economic status
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Spatial distribution of census section average distance from each portals to the nearest exercise facilities by type, and Area-Level Socio-Economic Status Index by deciles in the census section (N = 2415) of the city of Madrid. Note m = meters; SES = socio-economic status
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Area-level SES and availability of exercise facilities. Note IRR = incidence rate ratio; SES = socio-economic status
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Spatial distribution of census section average availability from each portal to exercise facilities by type using a 1000 m street network buffer, and Area-Level Socio-Economic Status Index by deciles in the census section (N = 2415) of the city of Madrid. Note SES = socio-economic status
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