Free-to-access PAI Circular Head

Physical Activity Infrastructure Circular Head

CAPITOL Project Helping communities to more effectively prevent obesity

Importance of physical activity Engaging in regular physical activity or exercise can improve your health and protect you from heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and helps maintain a healthy weight.

How much activity should I do?

Physical activity recommendations for adults (18 to 64 years) include being active most days of the week, ideally every day. As a guide, include 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate-intensity activity (per week) such as brisk walking or swimming.

If activities of more vigorous intensity are possible, such as jogging or cycling, this may equate to 1.25 to 2.5 hours per week. For many people, a combination of moderate and vigorous intensity activities may be possible. Including muscle-strengthening activities on two days a week is also important.

The good news is that you can start at a level you can manage. For example, if you are inactive, starting with a comfortable 10-minute walk each day can be increased over time. Remember, doing something is better than doing nothing and starting slowly and building up gradually over time is sensible. https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/physical-activity-and-exercise

Free-to-access facilities in Circular Head Free to access means that you can access the facilities without incurring a fee and without having to make a booking or reservation arrangements.

Circular Head has many free-to-access facilities. You can access these at any time that suits you.

The facilities in your local neighbourhood reduce the financial burden of participation in physical activity and provide you with more opportunities to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Mapping free-toaccess facilities Using mapping software and exploring Circular Head neighbourhoods, we identified all free-to-access facilities in the area.

We then assessed the quality of all facilities and identified potential challenges associated with the infrastructure.

We assessed the quality of the physical activity infrastructure using the validated Physical Activity Resource Assessment (PARA) instrument.

In accordance with objective standards of quality prescribed in the PARA instrument, each infrastructure item (for example, recreational track) was coded for quality using a three-category scale: 3 = GOOD; 2 = MEDIOCRE; and 1 = POOR. In addition, each piece of infrastructure was rated on overall incivilities (that is, elements that would decrease satisfaction associated with use of the piece of infrastructure). Incivilities were rated as 3 = HIGH; 2 = MEDIUM; or 1 = LOW.

What are the free-to-access facilities in Circular Head and where are they located?

Recreational tracks These include purpose built trails and tracks for running, walking and cycling: Duck River East Foreshore Path Stanley Foreshore Walk Tatlow’s Beach Loop Walk

Natural amenities These include beaches, parks and grass covered areas set aside for physical activity: Little Peggs Beach Brickmakers Beach Crayfish Creek Beach Edgecumbe Beach Hellyer Beach Godfreys Beach Stanley Marine Park ANZAC Park West Esplanade Wedge St Park

Check out this map of the free-to-access infrastructure available to you in Circular Head to see where you can find these facilities.

Maps of Smithton and Stanley are shown as the vast majority of the council population is concentrated in these two towns. Red dotted lines indicate where the purpose built trails and tracks for running, walking and cycling are. Beaches, parks and grass covered areas set aside for physical activity are indicated in green.

We have also indicated other physical activity facilities (gyms, sports grounds, dance studios etc.) within Circular Head in 'purple stars'. However, they are not free-to-access.

How do free-to-access facilities in Circular Head rate?

The quality of facilities available is excellent. See below an overall quality score and scores for tracks and natural amenity. The higher the score (maximum of 3), the better the quality.

For incivilities (or elements that decrease satisfaction), the higher the score (closer to 3) the poorer the outcome. In each case, overall incivility, and incivility for tracks and natural amenity were reasonably low (between 1.5 and 2.1).

In summary

Circular Head has plenty of free-to-access facilities across multiple areas.

The overall quality of facilities is excellent!

Even where incivilities (such as litter) may be present, the facilities are in excellent condition and readily usable.

The majority of facilities are accessible at any time of the day.

Given their high quality and accessibility, Circular Head residents should be encouraged to make better use of these free-to-access facilities.

CAPITOL Helping communities to more effectively prevent obesity

The main aim of the CAPITOL (Critical Age Periods Impacting the Trajectory of Obesogenic Lifestyles) project is to prevent overweight and obesity through community capacity building in NW Tasmania.

The successful implementation of the CAPITOL project will assist in the promotion of healthy lifestyles and reduce avoidable presentations to hospitals. https://www.utas.edu.au/health/community-programs/capitol

Professor Andrew Hills andrew.hills@utas.edu.au

Professor Roger Hughes roger.hughes@utas.edu.au

Mr Tim Holloway timothy.holloway@utas.edu.au

Acknowledgements We thank Doctors Emily Flies and Dave Kendal for their assistance in infrastructure mapping; Kira Patterson, Kiran Ahuja, Michelle Kilpatrick, Sisitha Jayasinghe for content creation and Mr. Rob Soward for his assistance in data collection.