Use of a public park to physical activity practice: prospective study in a small city from the South of Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Doring, Igor Retzlaff
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Caputo, Eduardo Lucia, Vilela, Guilherme da Fonseca, Silva, Marcelo Cozzensa da, Reichert, Felipe Fossati
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Saúde e Pesquisa (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unicesumar.edu.br/index.php/saudpesq/article/view/8334
• topic: Epidemiology; Environment; Motor activity; Public health; Atividade motora; Epidemiologia; Meio ambiente; Saúde pública; Atividade física; pormoção da saúde; espaços públicos

The aim of this study was to analyze the stability, over a 12-month period, in the use and non-use of a public park to physical activity (PA) practice among adults from Canguçu (RS, Brazil). A second aim was to evaluate the association of this stability with sociodemographic, behavioral, nutritional and health variables. Through an accidental sampling process, 109 users and 109 non-users of the public park were selected and answered a questionnaire. About 12 months after the first data collection, the subjects were searched and answered the same questionnaire. The association between the status of use of the park and the independent variables was assessed by the Chi-square test. Most participants were male (54.1%) and aged between 18 and 29 years (77.5%). As for the status of use of the public park, 70.7% of users continued to attend the park and 34.3% of the non-users started using the park. Public policies designed to promote physical activity should take these results into account, which can help to increase the number of individuals practicing PA in the park, as well as practice of those who already use it.