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Playground quality, access not tied to overweight, obesity in children
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Children who have access to a community playground are just as likely to develop overweight or obesity as children who do not have a playground near their home, regardless of the quality of the equipment, according to findings published in Childhood Obesity.
In an analysis of elementary school-aged children from a southeastern U.S. county and their access to and quality of playgrounds stratified by sociodemographic characteristics, researchers also noted that, across the full sample, fewer than one in seven children had at least one playground within a half-mile of their home.
“Although previous research has shown the importance of playgrounds for decreased obesity levels, fewer studies have focused on the specific features or quality of playgrounds,” Shea M. McCarthy, a PhD student in the department of health promotion, education and behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and colleagues wrote. “Understanding how playground features and quality are associated with childhood weight status could be useful in designing solutions to combat the growing obesity epidemic.”
McCarthy and colleagues analyzed data from 13,469 children enrolled in third, fourth and fifth grades at public schools in a southeastern U.S. county school district in 2013 (50.8% boys; 62.3% white; 54.7% receiving free or reduced school lunch). Researchers measured height and weight of all children, who were categorized as being healthy weight or overweight/obese (BMI > 85th percentile). Researchers assessed where children lived and conducted detailed audits of all park playgrounds (n = 95) in the school district area. Playground quality was measured by the presence of eight playground attributes using the Community Park Audit Tool, such as good condition and shade. Researchers used geographic information system and multilevel logistic regression analyses to determine access to playgrounds within a half-mile network buffer, whether playground access and quality varied by the individual’s sex, socioeconomic status and race, and the association between playground access and quality with healthy weight vs. overweight or obesity.
Within the cohort, 65.4% were classified as having a healthy weight; 34.6% were overweight or obese; 86.3% did not have a playground within a half-mile of their home. Most playgrounds were rated as useable (98.9%), colorful (95.8%) and separated from the road (94.7%); individual playground quality scores ranged from 5 to 10 (average, 8.35), with 47.4% receiving a score of 8 or lower.
Researchers also found that children of higher socioeconomic status were half as likely to have a playground within a half-mile of their home (OR = 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5-0.72), but there were no between-group differences observed for playground disparities by sex, race or socioeconomic status.
In unadjusted models, children with lower quality playgrounds nearby were more likely to have overweight or obesity vs. children with no playground access, according to the researchers. However, results did not persist after adjustment for socioeconomic and demographic variables.
In additional analyses comparing a subsample of children who had higher playground quality (n = 927) vs. those with lower playground quality (n = 917), researchers found that the group with higher-quality playgrounds were marginally less likely to be overweight or obese (OR = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.66-1.03).
“In the current study, the decent quality of most playgrounds and the limited number of youth in both the lower and higher playground quality groups (about 7% of the total sample in each category) may have limited power to detect differences in youth weight status across playground access and quality classifications,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted that longitudinal studies should examine how modifications to playground quality characteristics impact the attractiveness of play spaces to both youth and parents and the ultimate impact on energy expenditure and obesity among users. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure s : The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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