A study conducted in the Netherlands assessed the "playability" of neighborhood environments around 21 schools and the after-school physical activity of over five hundred 8-11 year-old children living within specified distances from the schools. The aim of the study was to investigate possible associations between the playability of environments and children's physical activity as well as the extent to which distinct time-periods after-school and the distance from children's residence to their school influenced such associations.
Children's physical activity was measured by accelerometers worn over five consecutive days with instructions to remove the accelerometers only during water-related activities. Readings used for this study were separated in four two-hour after-school time periods.
The SPACE observation instrument (a standardized assessment tool) was used to assess the playability of the neighborhood environments within an 800 m radius from each school. SPACE is a 54-item instrument which audits the friendliness of neighborhoods for physical activity and includes measures of related characteristics such as residential density, playground characteristics, and traffic intensity. The SPACE instrument is based on the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale, but was modified to reflect the Dutch environmental context. Schools and children's residences were geocoded, allowing the classification of each child as residing in 400, 800, 1600, or more than 1600 m buffers from their school.
Results indicated that playability was associated with light physical activity (PA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA during the after-school hours, especially in the two-hour period directly after-school and among children who lived within 800 m from their school. Greater distance from children's residence to their school weakened the association between playability of the environment surrounding the school and after-school physical activity. The researchers concluded that children who lived further away from school were relatively confined to their own residential neighborhood during after school hours, resulting in limited use of the school-environment for after-school physical activity.
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