Citation

Harrington DW, Jarvis JW, Manson H. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 14(10): e14101272.

Affiliation

Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Public Health Ontario, 480 University Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 1V2, Canada. heather.manson@oahpp.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph14101272

PMID

29065524

Abstract

Sports and recreation facilities provide places where children can be physically active. Previous research has shown that availability is often worse in lower-socioeconomic status (SES) areas, yet others have found inverse relationships, no relationships, or mixed findings. Since children's health behaviours are influenced by their parents, it is important to understand parents' perceived barriers to accessing sports and recreation facilities. Data from computer assisted telephone interviews with parents living in Ontario, Canada were merged via postal codes with neighbourhood deprivation data. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to estimate the likelihood that parents reported barriers to accessing local sports and recreation facilities. Parents with lower household incomes were more likely to report barriers to access. For each unit increase in deprivation score (i.e., more deprived), the likelihood of reporting a barrier increased 16% (95% CI: 1.04, 1.28). For parents, the relationships between household income, neighbourhood-level deprivation, and barriers are complex. Understanding these relationships is important for research, policy and planning, as parental barriers to opportunities for physical activity have implications for child health behaviours, and ultimately childhood overweight and obesity.

Language: en

Keywords

access to sports and recreation facilities; income; neighbourhood deprivation; parents; physical activity; socioeconomic status