Environmental determinants of outdoor play in children: a large-scale cross-sectional study

Background: Outdoor play is a cheap and natural way for children to be physically active.

Purpose: This study aims to identify physical as well as social correlates of outdoor play in the home and neighborhood environment among children of different age groups.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were derived from 6470 parents of children from 42 primary schools in four Dutch cities by means of questionnaires (2007-2008). Multivariate sequential Poisson GEE analyses were conducted (2010) to quantify the correlation between physical and social home and neighborhood characteristics and outdoor play among boys and girls aged 4-6 years, 7-9 years, and 10-12 years.

Results: This study showed that next to proximal (home) environmental characteristics such as parental education (RR=0.93-0.97); the importance parents pay to outdoor play (RR=1.32-1.75); and the presence of electronic devices in the child's own room (RR=1.04-1.15), several neighborhood characteristics were significantly associated with children's outdoor play. Neighborhood social cohesion was related to outdoor play in five of six subgroups (RR=1.01-1.02), whereas physical neighborhood characteristics (e.g., green neighborhood type, presence of water, diversity of routes) were associated with outdoor play in specific subgroups only.

Conclusions: Neighborhood social cohesion was related to outdoor play among children of different age and gender, which makes it a promising point of action for policy development. Policies aimed at improving physical neighborhood characteristics in relation to outdoor play should take into account age and gender of the target population.