Using Geographical Information systems (GIS) and Other Measures to Determine Physical Activity Opportunities for Adolescents

Many children do not meet physical activity recommendations. The physical environment has been implicated as one of the reasons. Today, a vast array of physical environ-mental variables ranging from fast food restaurants to the number of parks can be obtained from GIS. Researchers are examining these and proposing and testing relationships with physical activity of adolescents with varying results.

The research team of Dr. Russ Jago and others at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center attempted to increase the usefulness of GIS mapping by using a combination of diverse methods with adolescent males:

• GIS to identify parks, gymnasiums, trails, bus stops, grocery stores, restaurants, residential density, connectivity (defined as number of intersections), and crime;
• Accelerometry to obtain minutes of sedentary, light, and moderate to vigorous activity per day; and
• Self-report of the environment by participants.

Special statistical analyses reduced the number of GIS sources and self-reported items. Three GIS factors, parks, crime and gyms, as well as the self-reported factors of difficulty, access and safety were identified. Although the environmental factors were shown to be interrelated, only sidewalk conditions and street lights were positively associated with light intensity physical activity.

Dr. Jago explained, “Environmental factors may have less influence on the physical activity levels of adoles-cents than on adults. This may occur because adolescents tend to participate in physical activity at specific locations such as schools or sport clubs. Nevertheless, it is important that physical activity advocates recognize that the physical environment may either encourage or discourage physical activity.”

More information about this research project can be found in the July/August 2006 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion or at www.healthpromotionjournal.com. Dr. Jago is currently with the Dept. of Exercise & Health Sciences at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom www.bris.ac.uk/ehs/staff/russ.jago where he is continuing work in collaboration with CNRC scientists.