Commercial Facilities, Social Cognitive Variables, and Physical Activity of 12th Grade Girls

Background: Recent studies have found a relationship between access to neighborhood physical activity (PA) facilities and physical activity in youth.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess whether proximity of commercial PA facilities was related to vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 12th grade girls, independent of sport participation and social-cognitive influences, including perceived features of the social and physical environment.

Methods: Girls (N = 1,126 girls; 55% black, body mass index = 25.0 +/- 6.4) in 22 high schools completed questionnaires and provided home addresses. Using geographic information systems technology, commercial PA facilities were mapped and counted within 0.75- and 2.0-mile street network buffers around each girl's home. Girls self-reported PA using the 3-day physical activity recall.

Results: Approximately 25% of girls had at least one PA facility within the 0.75-mile buffer, and 65% of girls had at least one PA facility within the 2.0-mile buffer. Models of the direct and indirect relations of commercial PA facilities at 0.75- and 2.0-mile buffers, sport participation, self-efficacy for overcoming barriers and perceived physical and social environment with VPA both had acceptable fit to data (root mean square error of approximation = 0.049 and comparative fit index = 0.91).

Conclusions: The results indicate that proximity to multipurpose commercial PA facilities is a correlate of VPA independent of sport participation and perceived features of the social and physical environment.