Browsing by Subject "physical exercise"

Lack of physical activity and obesity are increasing problems that have caused higher healthcare expenses for society. As prior studies have shown, there is a connection between proximity to a sports facility and increased physical activity. Public sports facilities are a way of preventing segregation by providing opportunities for recreational sports for everybody. In my thesis, I studied spatial segregation and accessibility to swimming halls in the Greater Helsinki region. Spatial segregation was studied in terms of travel times to the nearest swimming hall between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged areas. The disadvantage sum index was used to identify the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged areas which were classified into quintiles by the index. The study was conducted using open source GIS data and applications apart from segregation analysis. Travel times to the nearest swimming facility were calculated using Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix (250m x 250m grid). Travel times were calculated for six different types of transportation: walking, cycling, public transportation (rush hour and midday) and private cars (rush hour and midday). Statistically significant differences between the most advantaged and the most disadvantaged quintiles were calculated with Student’s t-test in SPSS. The analysis showed that spatial accessibility to swimming halls in the Greater Helsinki region is generally good. Swimming halls have by far the best accessibility by cycling and private car. Travel times to the nearest swimming halls were shorter with all types of transportation for the most disadvantaged than the most advantaged which indicates that living in a more deprived area does not restrict spatial accessibility to swimming halls.