Can urban green space encourage physical activity? Results from a Finnish survey

There is a growing amount of empirical evidence stating that urban green areas can provide health and wellbeing for people. Several processes might explain the health effect of urban green space, one possibility being the encouragement of physical activity. With binary logistic regression analyses, this study analyzes the relationship between urban green space and physical activity, measuring total physical activity and non-recreational physical activity (meaning walking and cycling for transportation purposes). The findings of the analyses performed provide evidence for the argument that urban green space can particularly support non-recreational physical activity, when certain conditions exist, most importantly sufficient population density in the area.