Abstract

The research literature on  survey of recreational activity towards health and fitness, promoting health and fitness as it relates to human health is vast and growing. To help policymakers take new and emerging findings into account when designing recreation and park services and initiatives for the 21st century, this paper summarizes the salient issues and identifies research gaps. It considers how being outside in natural surroundings may improve health and how outdoor physical activities benefit participants. Particular attention is given to children’s health problems that can be mitigated through outdoor play, sports, and nature study. The paper describes approaches to measuring physical activity and recent trends in park visitation and outdoor activity participation. It looks at variables that affect participation in outdoor activities and considers the projected demographic changes that will affect policymaking in this arena. The findings of this literature review point to potential new directions for outdoor recreation policy, as well as new policy questions to be explored.

Key Words: outdoor recreation, public health, physical activity, children’s health

1.0    INTRODUCTION

This chapter will discuss about a survey on recreational activity towards health and fitness, promoting health and fitness. The background of the study, the statement of the problem, objective of the study and significance of the study.

When the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors reviewed the nation’s policies on outdoor recreation in 1985, the social, economic, and environmental benefits of recreation were recognized, but little attention was paid to human health benefits. Since then, however, research has confirmed a link between physical activity that takes place outdoors and positive health outcomes and also an association between an indoor, sedentary lifestyle and negative health consequences.

There is also evidence that both being outdoors and viewing natural scenes can reduce stress. The links are sufficiently strong that researchers and practitioners in health related fields are now beginning to identify parks and recreation as a health service.

Outdoor recreation’s contribution to health can be considered in the context of wellness. The World Health Organization (2003) defines health as  a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

This definition moves from a strictly medical model of health toward the concept of well-being. The Alberta Centre for Well Being (1989) finds that the concept of well-being or optimal health involves a delicate balance among physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social health and then lists a wide range of dimensions, from fitness, nutrition, and stress management to meditation, education, and relationships. Outdoor recreation touches on all those aspects of health and can enhance not only physical health but also emotional well-being. Just being outdoors, for example, has been shown to confer health benefits. The research literature on outdoor recreation as it relates to human health is vast and growing. To help policymakers take these new and emerging findings into account when designing recreation and park services and initiatives for the 21st century, this paper summarizes.

1.1    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM  

physical inactivity is responsible for 6% of deaths globally – around 3.2 million deaths per year, including 2.6 million in low- and middleincome countries, and 670,000 of these deaths are premature Because of the many benefits for health of physical activity, recent analysis has suggested that reaching the recommended minimum level of physical activity compared with no activity was found to lead to a reduction in all-cause mortality of 19 per cent – and this rises to 24 per cent if an hour a day is spent in physical activity.  In addition, there is a 31 per cent lower risk for allcause mortality in active individuals. This demonstrates a positive dose-response – in other words, that the benefits of physical activity increase as the amount and intensity of the activity

increases.

1.2     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. Where no activity has been previously made available, offering some type of sport or recreation program to fill that void should be given priority over making selective decisions about which program to implement.
2. Link sports and recreation programs to other services and opportunities.
3. Have senior community members who are willing and able to transmit cultural knowledge to young people
4. The Sporting Chance Program aims to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students (boys and girls) using sport and recreation as a vehicle to engage them in their schooling (Lonsdale et al. 2011). There are two distinct components of the program: School-based Sports Academies for secondary students, and Education Engagement Strategies, for both primary and secondary students.
5. The academies offer ‘innovative and high-quality sports-focussed learning and development opportunities’ (Lonsdale et al. 2011:13) to engage students in school. The academies are intensive, offering mentoring and support to students at least once per week and in some cases every day, before, during and after school. The Education Engagement Strategies are less intensive, vary considerably and involve visits at least twice per year to the school of high-profile athletes, who stay in a community for 1–5 days and provide mentoring and role-modelling activities for young people.
6. improvement in learning achievement and retention to Year 12 at some sites (others were inconclusive) and increased parental and community involvement in schools. The sustainability of engagement in school is more evident in the School-based Sports Academies than the Education Engagement Strategies.
7. Additional benefits include parental pride in the achievements of their children, school staff observing positive changes in ‘student confidence, self-esteem, behaviour, attendance and engagement in learning’, and the students themselves being able to articulate a range of positive learnings from their participation