Investigating issues of environmental injustice in neighborhoods surrounding parks

IntroductionObesity is an expanding public health issue in the United States as associated morbidity and mortality rates continue to rise (Dietz, 1998; Olshansky et al., 2005; Reilly et al., 2003; Trasande, 2010). The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend 150 minutes of physical activity for adults and one hour daily for children (USDHHS, 2008), but adherence to these recommendations is poor (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009; CDC, 2011). Likewise, although awareness of nutrition guidelines, such as consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, has increased from 8% to 40% since 1991, consumption trends have remained the same, with fewer than 1 in 10 Americans consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables (CDC, 2011). Further, levels of obesity, poor eating habits, and inactivity are more problematic among low income and racial and ethnic minority groups (CDC, 2011).Ecological models suggest that health is a shaped and constrained by the environments in which we live (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lee & Cubbin, 2009; Sallis, Owen, & Fisher, 2008; Spence & Lee, 2003). Obesogenic environments have been defined as the "sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations" (Swinbum, Egger, & Raza, 1999, p. 564). Evidence has shown that the obesogenicity of an environment is an impacting factor on escalating obesity rates (Sallis, Nader, & Atkins, 1986; Hill & Peters, 1998; Koplan & Dietz, 1999; Swinbum, Egger, & Raza, 1999; Reidpath et al., 2002). One element of obesogenic environments is the built environment, which includes a community's physical design, land use patterns, and transportation systems (Handy et al., 2002).Improving elements of the built environment may be key to addressing obesity disparities, especially in communities of color (Floyd, Taylor, & Whitt-Glover, 2009; Sallis, Floyd, Rodriguez, & Saelens, 2012). As one solution, researchers and public health professionals have argued for increased access to places that encourage physical activity, such as parks and playgrounds (Bedimo-Rung, Mowen, & Cohen, 2005; Blancket al., 2012; Cohen et al., 2007; Godbey, Caldwell, Floyd, & Payne, 2005; Kaczynski & Henderson, 2007; Moody et al., 2004). Indeed, a growing body of evidence supports that both proximity to parks and open spaces as well as the design and quality of such resources are important for facilitating park use and a wide variety of physical and mental health benefits (Floyd et al., 2011; Maas et al., 2009; Kaczynski, Potwarka, & Saelens, 2008; Kaczynski, Potwarka, Smale, & Havitz, 2009; Lee and Mahweswaran, 2011; Payne et al., 2005; Sugiyama, Middleton, Owen, & Giles-Corti, 2010;).Although parks are widely regarded as important community resources for health promotion, much research has reported that parks are often less prevalent and/or contain fewer features or poorer quality spaces in lower income and higher minority areas (Crawford et al., 2008; Estabrooks, Lee, & Gyurcsik, 2003; Gordon-Larsen, Nelson, Page, & Popkin, 2006; Joassart-Marcelli, 2010; Macintyre, 2000; Moore, Diez Roux, Evenson, McGinn, & Brines, 2008; Timperio, Ball, Salmon, Roberts, & Crawford, 2007; Vaughan et al., 2013; Wolch et al., 2005). This differential access to public facilities increases the burden on one population group while providing benefits to another; as such, this is an environmental justice issue that warrants attention for its implications for health and health disparities (Cutts, Darby, Boone, & Brewis, 2009; Sister, Wolch, & Wilson, 2010). Environmental justice is a theoretical framework as well as an action-oriented social movement that seeks to understand how environmental amenities and disamenities are distributed based on sociodemographic characteristics and to ameliorate these disparities for the benefit of all (Agyeman, 2005; Pellow, 2000; Taylor, Poston, Jones, & Kraft, 2006). …