NCT02615392

Park Prescription Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 160 (actual)
• Sponsor: National University of Singapore · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 40 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of prescribing park use (i.e., ''Park Prescription'') to insufficiently active individuals. It is hypothesized that Park Prescription will motivate the target population to increase physical activity and thereby improve their physical and mental health.

Detailed description

BACKGROUND: There are substantial international research findings supporting the role that natural environments play in enhancing human health and the prevention of chronic diseases. Also, there is evidence highlighting the (cost-) effectiveness of prescribing physical activity to promote one's physical activity and health. However, there is a lack of methodologically rigorous studies that have looked into the effectiveness of combining these two promising approaches; i.e., physical activity prescription with a focus on the use of parks and green spaces: Park Prescription. AIMS: This Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) will investigate the concept of Park Prescription as a health promoting intervention for individuals. The primary objective is to investigate the effectiveness of a park prescription interventions to increase participant's time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Main secondary objectives are to assess; A) improvement in physical health (e.g., blood sugar and blood pressure) and health behaviour (e.g., sitting time); B) improvement in mental health (e.g., quality of life); 3) intervention implementation fidelity and the association with park use and perceived study participant satisfaction. METHODOLOGY: Participants aged between 40 and 65 years will be recruited from the Singapore Population Health Community Screening Programme conducted by Alexandra Health Pte Ltd. They will be randomly assigned to one of the following two arms; 1) park prescription + participation in a weekly structured physical activity program conducted in the park, and 2) control group. Participants will be enrolled in the study for a period of 6 months. They will have to complete a baseline assessment, 3-month and 6-month follow-up. The investigators aim to recruit 80 participants in each arm, making a total of 160 study participants.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Park Prescription	Please refer to the information included in the arm description.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-01-01
• Primary completion: 2017-06-01
• Completion: 2017-06-01
• First posted: 2015-11-26
• Last updated: 2017-06-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Singapore