The availability between recreational facilities and physical activity of US adolescents

Abstract

Determining the locations where adolescents tend to accumulate greater amounts of physical activity may assist policymakers to address the built environment design and promote PA. This study evaluated the association between the availability of recreational facilities and average minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day of US adolescents in 2017 (n = 1,437). Data for this cross-sectional study were obtained from the 2017 Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating study, an internet-based study collecting information on diet and PA of parent and adolescent dyads. Adolescents aged 12-17 from the US were included. Predicted daily minutes of MVPA were calculated. The exposure variables of interest were the availability of school recreational facilities, indoor recreational facilities, playing fields, bike/hiking/walking trails or paths or public parks. Participants were excluded if no information was provided for MVPA or availability of recreational facilities. Unadjusted and adjusted linear regression analysis was used to calculate mean daily minutes of MVPA and their corresponding 95 % confidence intervals. In fully adjusted models, we found statistically significant associations between the type of recreational facility and differences in daily minutes of MVPA for school (p-value < 0.001) and public parks p-value < 0.001), but not for the other recreational facilities. The average daily minutes of MVPA differed by 4.4 min (95 % CI 2.6, 6.2) if participants had school recreational facilities, respectively. School recreational facilities are important for engaging adolescents in PA objectives. Features within school recreational facilities should be studied to further investigate contributions to increased PA levels.

Keywords: Adolescents; Environment; Exercise; Physical activity; Recreational facilities.