Natural environment and Pa Flashcards
Background- influence of Pa
-Regular Pa is strongly associated with better physical and psychological health outcomes, and the promotion of physical activity is now a high public health priority
-To develop relevant polices an effective intervention, it is necessary to identify the factors that can be changes to influenced Pa behaviour.
-Of the factors associated with Pa, environmental influences are among the least understood.
Natural environments
-Encompasses the non-human-made surrounding and conditions in which all living and non-living things exist on earth.
-The common concept of the natural environment encompasses two difference components:
-Biotic- living organism (plants, animals, bacteria etc)
-Abiotic – Non-living things (water, soil, light, air etc)
-The natural environment is in contrast with the “built environment” which refers to areas that have been fundamentally transformed and influenced by human activity, such as cities, towns, infrastructure.
Green exercise and PA
- growing interest in PA and natural environments or “green space”
- investigation whether participating in Pa in outdoor natural environments had greater effect on physical and mental wellbeing than Pa indoors (Coon et all, 2011).
- Compares with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environment was associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, decrease in tension, confusion, anger and depression and increased energy. However, the result suggest that feelings of calmness may be decreased following outdoor exercise.
Green exercise
- Direct exposure to natura (e.g. parks, forest or by lakes) increases the positive effects PA has on mental well-being (i.e biomarkers and self-reports of stress, mood and reported kevels of fatigue)
stress recovery theory (Ulrich, 1983)
- Humans are programmed to react emotionally positively to natural settings and elements because they are evolutionarily associated with safety and survival.
-This in turn, reduced or buffers stress. Relaxation
Attention restoration theory (Kaplan, 1989)
-Nature provides stimuli that attract involuntary, automatic attention.
-This effortless mode of attention allows individuals to recover from metal fatigue, which occurs after performing cognitive task that require directed attention. Psychological detachment.
Green, blue and white spaces
-Outdoor environments – either natural or manmade- that prominently feature.
-Land that is partly or complete covered with grass, trees, shrubs or other vegetation.
-Water (e.g. rivers, lakes or the sea)
-Snow covered natural areas
Green space and PA
- Green spaces can promote Pa by providing free and readily accessible location for active pastimes.
- Studies suggest that people who live in neighbourhoods with higher levels of green space undertake more (sometimes more vigorous) Pa such as cycling and walking.
-Green spaces facilitate the kinds of PA that tend to attract greater long-term adherence
climate change
-Climate change is a change in average temperature and cycles of whether over a long period of time.
-Since 1880, scientist have kept thermometer-based records of global surface temperature.
-The planet is becoming warmer.
-The scientific community has reached >98% consensus (IPCC, 2018) that the rate of change is faster now than ever before, due to human activity.
why is climate change a problem ?
-The most serve indicators of climate change are global average warming, sea level rise and higher occurrence and severity of natural disasters (e.g. heat waves, hurricanes, droughts and intense precipitation)
-As the global temperature has increased, so has the number of reported natural disasters.
Consequences for human health
-Increase prevalence of heat-related illness and illnesses caused by poor air quality.
-Malnutrition from reduced food quality and security.
-Increasing burden of vector-borne diseases
-Mental health issues relate to more frequent extreme events and natural disasters.
sports is impacted by climate change
-Storms and hurricanes are damaging facilities, low-snow winters are causing ski events to get cancelled, incidence of heat strokes is going up, suffers are riding over plastic.
-Not all sports organization and athletes are affected by climate change in the same way. This is caked climate vulnerability.
sport is contributing to climate change
-Sport organization produce extraordinary amounts of waste, consume resources heavily and promote consumption culture.
-Sports participants and fans also have a carbon footprint.
-Sports is closely tied to tourism, transport, manufacturing, and other high-impact industries.
air pollution
pollution is negatively associated with physical activity participation including moderate to vigorous Pa and active transport. These associations appear to be stronger among older adults and vulnerable.
Extreme weather conditions
higher temperature is usually associated with an increase in Pa. Studies anticipate a positive effect of temperature increase on Pa in some areas during colder months. Increase temp could increase risk of Hyperthermia.
