@article{ref1,
title="Relationship between recreational resources in the school neighborhood and changes in fitness in New York City public school students",
journal="Journal of urban health",
year="2017",
author="Bezold, Carla P. and Stark, James H. and Rundle, Andrew and Konty, Kevin and Day, Sophia E. and Quinn, James and Neckerman, Kathryn and Roux, Ana V. Diez",
volume="94",
number="1",
pages="20-29",
abstract="Physical fitness in children has many beneficial effects, including the maintenance of a healthy weight. The built environment may influence youths' physical fitness by encouraging physical activity. This paper assessed whether higher density of parks, playgrounds, and sports facilities around a school is related to improvements in fitness in middle school boys and girls. Fitness scores and other student covariates collected as part of NYC FITNESSGRAM between the 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 school years were linked with school neighborhood data on characteristics of the built environment for NYC public school students in grades 6-8. Data were analyzed in 2015. Medium, but not high, density of recreational resources in the area surrounding a school was associated with greater annual improvements in fitness for both boys and girls. This association appeared to be driven mainly by the presence of parks. <br><br>FINDINGS for sports facilities and playgrounds were inconsistent. Overall, few associations were observed between recreational resources near a school and changes in student fitness. Future studies of school influences on student fitness should consider the influence of school resources and the home neighborhood.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1099-3460",
doi="10.1007/s11524-016-0114-1",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11524-016-0114-1"
}