The Relationship of Physical Activity Level and Recreation Area

This research examines the relationship between the criteria that individuals, who use recreation areas as physical activity spaces, care about their choice of areas and their level of physical activity. 389 individuals who do physical activity in 6 different parks and recreation areas in Ankara voluntarily participated in the study. The data of the study were collected by the International Physical Activity Level Questionnaire (Short Form) and the Recreation Area Preference Factors Scale. International physical activity questionnaire (Short Form) Craig et al. (2003) and its Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Öztürk (2005). Recreation Area Preference Factors were developed by Gümüş and Alay (2017). It consists of 5 sub-dimensions and a total of 24 items and is in the 5-point Likert type. Distribution normality was tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. In the analysis of the data, besides descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis H test and correlation analysis were used for data. The level of significance was accepted as p<0,01. 21.8% of individuals who use parks and recreation areas are underweight according to body mass index, 29.57 are within the healthy weight range, 34.24% are overweight and 15.13% are obese individuals. The lowest correlation value of the sub-dimensions of physical activity level and recreation area preference factors was found in the “activity” sub-dimension (r = 0.106); the highest correlation value was in the "Sportive diversity" sub-dimension (r = 0.401). There is a significant difference in the physical activity levels of the research group according to the frequency of participation in the recreation areas. The physical activity levels of the participants who visit the parks and recreation areas for 5 days or more per week are significantly higher than the individuals who visit the parks and recreation areas once a week or less.