Content and Area Income Disparities in Recreation Center Website Promotion of Physical Activity

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is associated with numerous health benefits; however, both children and adults in the U.S. fall short of national PA recommendations. Diverse agencies have identified the importance of recreation professionals playing an ac-tive role in providing and promoting PA, including via recreation centers. Few studies have examined the contributions public recreation centers make in pro-viding residents with opportunities for PA, and those that exist offer mixed results concerning the influence of neighborhood family income levels.Recreation center websites are a popular, cost-efficient, and flexible me-dium for providing information about PA and center programs. We completed a line-by-line analysis of the content of the websites of all public recreation centers (N = 58) in the city of San Diego, California. We extracted the days and hours the centers operated as well as PA facil-ity types and programs they provided. Program details were identified, includ-ing content, frequency/duration for classes, participants targeted, and enrollment costs. Additionally, we generated information about local neighborhoods, includ-ing family median income levels. Diverse statistical analyses were conducted, overall, and by a median split for neighborhood income status. On average, centers had 4.5 PA facilities and were open 59 hours/week, with no differences by neighborhood income. Meanwhile, centers in higher-income areas provided significantly more programs (5.3 vs 2.3). Overall, 33 distinct facility types were identified, but only gymnasia and outdoor basketball courts were listed by over 50% of centers. Fifty distinct programs were identified, with dance, teen center, basketball, and volleyball mentioned most frequently.