The benefits and needs of exercise in public open spaces on women's health

Maghrabi, A; Ormerod, MG; Newton, RA

Abstract

This research explores women’s physical activities in urban public open spaces in Saudi Arabia. Physical inactivity is a growing health concern, and research has begun to address the physical environment, a subset of which looks particularly at the role of the environment for women. With a population of 4.1 million, Jeddah is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. According to the World Health Organization, 36.5% of Saudi Arabians
are obese and around 31% of the population suffers from hypertension. Women have the larger proportion of this statistics being 39.1% total. The current physical space provision is less than the world health organization’s recommendation of 9 m² per person. Currently,
the lack amount of provision open spaces in Jeddah are not covering the resident’s needs.
The objectives of this study are to:
Determine the types of the urban public spaces that are frequently used by the residents in groups and individuals.
Record activities and use across demographic factors at different times of year and day as well as in diverse locations.
Record and critique current professional practice regarding the planning, design and management of urban public open spaces in Saudi Arabia, with specific focus on
social and cultural requirements.
Identify the diversity of the use and preferences for open spaces, and especially in those neighbourhoods that reflect migration, religion, gender, age and economic
factors.
Propose new urban public open space forms to improve the urban health by resolving current urban and environmental issues that affect negatively on residents
quality of life and physical.
Keywords: Health; urban; public open spaces; users; needs

Citation

Maghrabi, A., Ormerod, M., & Newton, R. (2014, October). The benefits and needs of exercise in public open spaces on women's health. Poster presented at Habitats for Happy and Healthy Ageing, Edinburgh, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: Habitats for Happy and Healthy Ageing
• Conference Location: Edinburgh, UK
• Start Date: Oct 11, 2014
• End Date: Oct 14, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Oct 14, 2016
• Publication Date: Oct 14, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Publisher URL: https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/mmp/conference/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference; Projects : Conference attend