关键词: 休闲性体力活动, 绿色空间, 社区分异, 广州

Abstract:

The continuous development of the social economy has provided us with a modern and intelligent lifestyle, which may also increase citizens’ sedentary behaviors. How to improve citizens’ leisure time physical activities and public health at a country level has become a popular issue in recent years. Previous studies suggested that enhancing individual access to green spaces is a vital strategy to encourage leisure time physical activities. The imbalance between the supply and demand of green spaces may lead to environmental and health injustice problems. However, there is a lack of studies on the different spatial dimensions, when residents are considered, in homogeneous groups as a community, especially regarding various settling modes in China. Thus, it is of great significance to study the relationship between green space and leisure time physical activities from the perspective of community differentiation. This study used 776 effective samples (n=1 029) from 20 selected communities in Guangzhou. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the impact factors and underlying mechanisms. The results demonstrate that the residents’ leisure time physical activities have notable differences according to the type of community. That is, the residents’ average values of low-grade, middle-grade and high-grade communities were 782.99 MET-min/w, 871.70 MET-min/w, and 1 227.91 MET-min/w, respectively. Therefore, attention should be paid to these differences. The multiple linear regression model also illustrated that the significant factors that affect the leisure time physical activity levels in green spaces for the sample include “distance to the nearest park or square,” “neighborhood green coverage rate,” and “number of fitness facilities.” However, the significant factors vary at the level of community types. The influential factor of low-grade communities that impact residents’ leisure time physical activities is “distance to the nearest park or square,” for middle-grade communities it is “neighborhood green coverage rate,” while for high-grade communities it is “number of fitness facilities.” From the standpoint of mechanisms, time and monetary costs are the main elements that constrained residents of low-grade communities away from leisure time physical activities, which forced them to choose light-intensity leisure time physical activities such as walking, as their main fitness activity. Neighboring parks or squares undoubtedly are the first choice for these residents. Due to the imbalance between supply and demand in neighborhood greening, a green environment is the main element that affected residents of middle-grade communities, and the fitness opportunities are the main element that affected residents of high-grade communities. The well-equipped fitness facilities around high-grade communities provide these residents with ample opportunities to engage in leisure time physical activities, which makes their leisure time physical activity level far higher than the other two types of communities. To some extent, these findings expose the maladies caused by market-oriented residential space differentiation and the existing problems of green space planning. This study could provide a reference for the optimization of green space distribution and maintenance of social space justice, encouraging residents to participate in leisure time physical activities so as to improve public health.

Key words: leisure time physical activity, green space, community differentiation, Guangzhou