Association of Greenspaces Accessibility and Proximity With Physical Activity: A Systematic Review Publisher



Ramezanghorbani N¹ ; Djalalinia S² ; Mohammadian Khonsari N³ ; Payab M⁴ ; Kasaeian A^{5, 6, 7} ; Esmaeili Abdar M⁸ ; Mahdavigorabi A⁹ ; Qorbani M^{3, 10}
Source: Sport Sciences for Health Published:2025

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have shown that greenspace is associated with the level of physical activity (PA). We conducted a comprehensive review of qualitative and quantitative studies to provide an overview of the association between greenspaces and PA. Methods: We searched electronic databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus, and reviewed all studies conducted on greenspace and PA. Reviewers independently screened studies based on titles and abstracts. Data were extracted by two authors using a predefined data extraction sheet. The quality of related documents was assessed independently by two research experts using the Newcastle Ottawa scale. Results: After the initial search and reviewing the titles and abstracts of 318 articles, we included 45 articles in this study. The total sample size of all selected studies was 415,156 individuals. Among the 29 studies evaluating proximity, 9 studies (31.0%) found a positive association, 7 studies (24.1%) reported a negative association, 3 studies (10.3%) found both positive and negative associations based on the definition of PA, and 10 studies (34.5%) reported no association between proximity to greenspace and physical activity. Regarding access to greenspace, out of the 16 reports, 7 studies (43.7%) found a positive association, 3 studies (18.7%) found a negative association, 1 study (6.2%) found both negative and positive associations based on the definitions of access, and 5 studies (31.2%) found no association between access to greenspace and physical activity. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the association between proximity to parks and PA varied among studies, potentially due to heterogeneity in exposure measurement. However, the majority of the studies indicated a positive association between PA and access to greenspaces. Thus, more prospective cohort studies in different settings are in need to reach a definitive conclusion on this association. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature 2025.