Xie Bo, Lu Yi, Wu Lei, An Zihao
School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.
Health Place. 2021 Jan;67:102502. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102502. Epub 2021 Jan 1.
Although many cross-sectional studies have confirmed the positive associations between greenspaces and physical activity, evidence from natural experiments is scarce, especially for large-scale greenspace interventions. In addition, it is unclear how the physical-activity-related benefits of a greenspace intervention vary with distance from residences to greenspaces. We used a natural experimental approach to explore the impact on physical activity of a large-scale greenway intervention, namely the East Lake greenway, in Wuhan, China. Two waves of survey data (before and after the intervention in 2016 and 2019, respectively) were collected from 1020 participants residing in 52 neighbourhoods at different distances (0-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5 km) from the 102-km-long greenway. The results obtained using difference-in-difference models indicated that the greenway intervention had positive effects on both moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and overall physical activity (MET-minutes/week) after controlling for individual and neighbourhood covariates. Furthermore, the physical activity benefits of the greenway intervention were found to decrease with increasing distance between the greenway and the participants' residences. Individuals living closer to this large-scale greenway accrued more substantial physical activity benefits. Our results, together with those of other natural experimental studies, suggest that large-scale greenspace interventions may provide long-term physical activity benefits to residents living in a wide geographic area.
尽管许多横断面研究证实了绿地与身体活动之间的正相关关系，但自然实验的证据却很匮乏，尤其是关于大规模绿地干预的证据。此外，尚不清楚绿地干预对身体活动的益处如何随居民与绿地之间的距离而变化。我们采用自然实验方法，探究了中国武汉一项大规模绿道干预措施，即东湖绿道，对身体活动的影响。从居住在距离102公里长绿道不同距离（0 - 1公里、1 - 2公里、2 - 3公里、3 - 4公里和4 - 5公里）的52个社区的1020名参与者那里收集了两波调查数据（分别在2016年和2019年干预前后）。使用双重差分模型得到的结果表明，在控制了个体和社区协变量后，绿道干预对中度至剧烈身体活动（MVPA）和总体身体活动（每周代谢当量分钟数）均有积极影响。此外，发现绿道干预对身体活动的益处随着绿道与参与者住所之间距离的增加而减少。居住在离这条大规模绿道更近的个体获得了更显著的身体活动益处。我们的研究结果与其他自然实验研究的结果共同表明，大规模绿地干预可能为居住在广泛地理区域的居民提供长期的身体活动益处。
