Socioecological Correlates of Park-based Physical Activity in Older Adults: A Comparison of Hong Kong and Leipzig Parks

Ru Zhang, Yanping Duan, Walter Brehm and Petra Wagner
Additional contact information
Ru Zhang: Department of Sports Science & Physical Education, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Yanping Duan: Department of Sport and Physical Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Walter Brehm: Institute of Sport Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
Petra Wagner: Institute of Exercise and Public Health, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-14

Abstract: Aims: The present study aimed to examine and compare the socioecological correlates of park-based physical activity (PA) among Hong Kong and Leipzig older adults in terms of types of activity areas, perceived park environment, psychosocial factors, and the interactions between the perceived park environmental and psychosocial factors. Methods: Based on the SOPARC, systematic observations were conducted in six randomly selected urban parks in each city. A total of 317 Hong Kong ( M age = 69.96; SD = 6.81) and 311 Leipzig ( M age = 72.06; SD = 6.78) older adults from these six parks completed an interviewer-delivered survey measuring their perceived park environment, psychosocial variables, and park-based PA. Results: In both cities, the types of activity areas were positively associated with the number of older adults observed being active in parks. Psychosocial factors, especially self-efficacy and perceived barriers, had larger associations with park-based PA compared with the perceived park environment. The interaction between perceived park features and self-efficacy in the association with park-based PA was found in Leipzig, but not in Hong Kong. Conclusion: Findings of the current study contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of the socioecological correlates of park-based PA among older adults.

Keywords: park-based physical activity; older adults; socioecological model; urban parks; active living; perceived park environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3048/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3048/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:17:p:3048-:d:259950

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().