Out in the park
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat. If you can't afford a gym or home fitness equipment, there may be another alternative for being active – an urban park. Deborah Cohen of the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California watched and talked with people in or near parks in low-income areas of Los Angeles. Her study in the American Journal of Public Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health. Cohen says people were busy walking, playing – or even just sitting, which means they at least walked to the bench. She says people could do more: "The best way for people to use parks is to actually use them. One of the things that we noticed was that, more than half the time, specific areas of the parks were totally empty. There was not a single person there." (12 seconds) Learn more at www.hhs.gov. HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss. Last revised: April, 06 2007 | 
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