The Role of the Environmental Features of Public Parks in Attracting People toward Morning Exercise: A Case of Arak City

Aim and Background:

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of environmental features of parks on people’s tendency to participate in morning exercises in arak city.

The population consisted of all the people who used the parks of Arak City for morning exercise. 200 park users were randomly selected as the sample. The data were collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher with 30 items that evaluated the effect of environmental features on physical activity on a 5-point Likert scale. The validity of the instrument was confirmed by professors and experts. Its reliability was also confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.842). Descriptive and inferential statistics (Friedman test) were used for data analysis.

Findings of the present study show that there is no significant relationship between access to parks and morning exercise in Arak city

The results suggested that the facilities and aesthetics of parks are significantly associated with park use for morning exercise. However, the relationship between morning exercise and safety condition, and access was not significant.