Valkenburg, Imke (2024) The accessibility of sports facilities and obesity in the municipalities of the Netherlands. Bachelor thesis.
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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.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Degree programme: | Human Geography and Planning |
| Supervisor: | Vogt, T.C. and Bister, L. |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2024 11:01 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Feb 2024 11:01 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4469 |
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