Does Playground Improvement Increase Physical Activity among Children? A Quasi-Experimental Study of a Natural Experiment

Table 2

Children engaged in MVPA in playground in Intervention Park A and Comparison Park B, preand post intervention, expressed as mean number of children engaged in MVPA per 2-hour observation period.

	Boy		Girl		Total children
	Pre^a	Post^a	Pre^a	Post^a,b	Pre^a	Post^a
Intervention Park A*	1.19 (2.09)	1.10 (1.51)	1.14 (2.37)	0.24 (0.44)	1.17 (2.21)	0.67 (1.18)
Comparison Park B	3.19 (4.76)	2.38 (3.79)	2.52 (3.03)	1.57 (2.04)	2.86 (3.95)	1.98 (3.03)

Note: Data included observations from scans performed every 30 minutes during three 2-hour periods on 5 weekdays and 2 weekend days; 𝑛 = 84 scans for Park A and Park B (preintervention), and 80 for Park B postintervention. *In Park A at followup, three scan areas included play equipment; these three scans were combined as one for comparison purposes. Means were compared via generalized linear model, with significance set at 𝑃 < 0.05. ^aA significant difference was found between parks. ^bA significant difference was found between pre and postintervention MVPA for girls in Park A.