ArticlePreventive medicine reports2019
Changes in physical activity after building a greenway in a disadvantaged urban community: A natural experiment.
Article in Preventive medicine reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effectiveness of new urban trail infrastructure on physical activity and active transportation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of natural experiments.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Impact of Changes to Urban Green Spaces on Health and Education Outcomes, and a Critique of Their Applicability to Inform Economic Evaluation.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of structural-level environmental interventions on physical activity: a systematic review.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2023Pooled it
- The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Urban nature-based solutions as public-health infrastructure: a scoping review of implemented interventions.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Article
- Effects of bicycle infrastructure interventions on physical activity in the general population: rapid review.BMC public health · 2026Review
- Runnability: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Does environmental attention differ during walking, jogging, and cycling in greenways? Evidence from eye movement responses to videos.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Using Video Cameras to Assess Physical Activity and Other Well-Being Behaviors in Urban Environments: Feasibility, Reliability, and Participant Reactivity Studies.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Does the Installation or the Improvement of Existing Outdoor Parks Increase Physical Activity Levels? A Systematic Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The Impact of the Built Environment and Social Environment on Physical Activity: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Few studies have evaluated physical activity changes in response to active transportation investments in low-income disadvantaged communities. This quasi-experimental pre-post paired location design assessed physical activity responses to a 1.5-mile urban greenway constructed in 2013 along arterial streets in a poor, high-crime, predominantly African-American neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pre-construction (2011) and post-construction (fall 2014), systematic observations (N = 8783) and environmental audit data were collected at the greenway and a comparison area. Post-construction intercept surveys were collected at the greenway (N = 175). Secondary data sources included census 2010-2014 and crime rates. Post-construction, there were notable improvements in street and sidewalk design, however, conditions remained sub-optimal and crime remained high. Most greenway users resided in the neighborhood and were daily users. Systematic observations at the greenway found slight increases in non-walking MVPA after construction (running or bicycling rose from 4% to 9%) and MVPA that included walking-fast (rose from 16% to 18%). However, the magnitude of the increase was similar to the increase in MVPA observed at the comparison site, which suggested that intensity of physical activity did not change as a result of the greenway (p-value > 0.15 for adjusted interaction between pre-post and location). Greenways, absent comprehensive improvements to the built and social environment, may be insufficient to promote MVPA in very disadvantaged high-crime urban communities.
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Registered trials
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