Introduction Few studies have analyzed the impact of public investments in indoor and outdoor recreational spaces, and even fewer have assessed this impact longitudinally. This hinders informed decision-making about returns on investments made with limited public budgets. We assessed the impact of a 2008 municipal plan to revitalize existing urban and rural public indoor facilities and outdoor spaces by evaluating changes in usage levels before and after implementation of Phase 1 (2009–2013) of the revitalization plan. Methods A quasi-experimental study involving a telephone survey of 750 participants was conducted before and after Phase 1. A region with similar demographics and public recreational indoor and outdoor infrastructure was used for comparison. Results Our analysis found no changes in usage of recreational venues over time whether indoor (e.g. multipurpose recreational facilities, community halls) or outdoor (e.g. golf courses, off-leash dog parks, multiuse trails), in either the intervention or comparison region. Only one rural multipurpose indoor recreational facility showed a statistically significant increase in usage during Phase 1. Conclusion Strategies targeting only physical infrastructure may not result in increased usage across a municipal population. To address existing inequities in access to publicly funded community resources that support health, both the built and social environments must be considered.
Belon et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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