July 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 43

Fig. 3 - Features of Parks

regular community of users who get to
know and support each other. Loops may
provide safer settings to walk or jog in
than sidewalks or city streets, where traffic
may be a concern. Whatever the reason,
our findings suggest that specific facilities,
such as walking loops, might be a promising means to increase physical activity
among park users, especially adults.
Importance of Supervised
Activities and Marketing
Increased park use and physical activity
were also associated with the number of
supervised activities offered by the park,
as well as with on-site marketing of park
activities. For every additional supervised
activity, park use tended to increase by an
average of nearly 50 percent and physical activity by 37 percent. Marketing of
existing park facilities and activities -
through banners, posters and signs - was
associated with a 62 percent increase in
the number of park users and a 63 percent
increase in physical activity with the park.
Moving Forward
The mere existence of a park does not
guarantee that people will use it, even
when the park offers many recreational facilities. Also, those who use parks
may do so for many purposes other than
physical activity. Indeed, many parks
were designed in earlier eras, when jobs
often required considerable physical activity and parks were intended to provide
a much needed opportunity for leisure
and recreation.
However, given today's relatively sedentary occupations and lifestyles, as well
as the growing incidence of obesity and
chronic disease, there is a significant need
to increase physical activity among Americans, especially adults and seniors. Neighborhood parks can play a key role, but
changes will be needed to encourage more
people to use parks for physical activity.
We offer the following three suggestions
for moving forward:
1. It is important to encourage more peo-

ple to make use of neighborhood parks
and to address disparities in park use
among certain populations. Our study
found that although it is critically important for adults and seniors to engage
in routine physical activity, most parks
are geared toward serving youth rather
than adults. Given that physical activity
may have more-immediate benefits for
adults and seniors in terms of preventing or mitigating the effect of chronic
disease, park systems should consider
adding enhancements, such as walking
loops, and more programs that would
appeal to older age groups.
2. Parks need to offer more supervised
activities and to engage in greater
marketing and outreach efforts to get
people involved. Such efforts are particularly important in lower-income
neighborhoods, where parks may not
be adequately meeting the needs of
local residents, even though they have
similar facilities to those found in higher-income neighborhoods.
3. Targeted investments in facilities, such
as walking loops, may also be appropriate. In this study, the presence of walking loops was associated with increased
park use and increased physical activity. In contrast to other park facilities
that support physical activity, such as
gyms, swimming pools and skate parks,
walking loops may provide relatively inexpensive additions that could be inte-

grated into many existing park designs.
These would be particularly beneficial
for seniors.
Improving our nation's neighborhood
parks will require investments, and obtaining funding for improvements can
be challenging given that parks are usually financed at the local level. However, the current investment in urban
parks across the United States is relatively small, considering the potential
health benefits these parks can provide.
In 2013, the average annual per capita
expenditure for parks was $73 - less
than 1 percent of the $9,146 per capita
expenditure on healthcare in the same
year. Relatively modest investments
may improve neighborhood park conditions to make them conducive to physical activity for everyone, regardless of
age, gender or income level.
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Deborah A. Cohen, MD, is a Senior Scientist at
the RAND Corporation and the Principal
Investigator of the National Study of
Neighborhood Parks (dcohen@rand.org). Kristin
Leuschner is a Communications Analyst at the
RAND Corporation (kristin@rand.org).

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