@unpublished{theses_frw4469,
           title = {The accessibility of sports facilities and obesity in the municipalities of the Netherlands},
            year = {2024},
          author = {Imke Valkenburg},
             url = {https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/4469/},
        abstract = {This research aims to find whether obesity rates are linked to the accessibility of sports 
facilities in urban and rural municipalities of the Netherlands. Furthermore, it aims to find 
whether the accessibility of sports facilities influences weekly sports participation rates within 
municipalities. This thesis offers a novel research focus, as during literature review, only 
research was found on sports participation rates between urban and rural areas and how living 
environment impacts physical activity patterns. There is no earlier research investigating a 
connection between obesity rates and the accessibility of sports facilities in the Netherlands. 
This research features a cross-sectional study for the year 2018, using data from the Mulier 
Institute and the Central Bureau of Statistics on all municipalities of the Netherlands existing 
in 2018. It applies two multiple regressions to test for a relationship between the accessibility 
of sports facilities and obesity rates and the accessibility of sports facilities and weekly sports 
participation rates.
This study revealed that the accessibility of sports facilities has a significant positive 
impact on weekly sports participation. Additionally, a 90 percent significant negative 
relationship was found between the number of sports facilities per 1000 people in a 
municipality. No significant differences in obesity rates and sports participation rates have been 
found between urban and rural municipalities. This would conclude that, according to this 
research, the accessibility of sports facilities does not significantly affect obesity rates, and 
therefore no future policy implications aiming to decrease obesity rates should be installed 
based solely on the accessibility of sports facilities. If a municipality wishes to increase weekly 
sports rates within a municipality, increasing accessibility within municipalities could be 
advised. However, the absence of significant relationships in this research does not directly 
imply that these relationships do not exist. Samples on an individual level or increasing the 
sample size could lead to different conclusions.}
}