The Park RX RCT: Impact on Physical Activity Among Youth

Most youth do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity, so finding methods to increase physical activity would be beneficial to health. The objective of this study was to determine whether clinician prescriptions for park visits would increase physical activity among youth.

This RCT was conducted from 2020 to 2023 with 12 months' follow-up.

This RCT was conducted in a federally qualified health center outpatient clinic in Washington, DC and focused on youth aged 6-16 years with 1 or more diagnoses of chronic conditions that usually require 2 or more routine healthcare provider visits per year.

Receiving park prescriptions from their healthcare provider during regular clinic visits, about every 3 months.

Accelerometry-measured minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, BMI, blood pressure, and self-report of park visit frequency and time spent in park were measured.

Of the 514 randomized participants, the median age was 10.4 years (SD=2.7) and included 246 females (47.9%), 268 males, (52.1%) 451 Latinx (87.7%), and 52 African Americans (10.1%). Intent-to-treat analyses showed a significant change of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, increasing by 2.03 minutes (SE=0.86) at 3 months and 1.98 minutes (SE=0.88) at 6 months compared with the controls, which translates to slightly more than a 12% increase. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity increases were primarily among boys and children aged 11-16 years. There was no change in BMI or blood pressure. Self-report of park visits increased at 3 and 12 months.

Issuing park prescriptions has a positive impact on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for low-income youth. Future studies should replicate this intervention, given that the positive findings suggest that Park Rx is likely to be beneficial and should be widely adopted by healthcare providers.

This trial is registered with Number NCT04114734.