Government Support, Community Recreation Facilities, and Physical Activity in China: A Cross-Sectional Socioecological Analysis.

Background: In the context of rising noncommunicable diseases, Chinese authorities emphasize the need for local governments to provide public sports services to support physical activity (PA).

Methods: Employing a socioecological theoretical framework, and drawing on a hierarchical data set synthesized from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database, and Wind Financial Terminal from 2015, a multilevel analysis of the association between provincial government expenditure on culture, sports, and media from 12 provinces, the recreation facilities provided by 287 communities, and PA of n = 10,305 individuals is performed. The number of, and time allocated to, PAs undertaken as well as their METs equivalent in relation to World Health Organization guidelines are investigated.

Results: Controlling for a large set of individual confounders, the results show that community recreation facilities and provincial government expenditure have a significant positive association with PA participation that exceeds health guidelines.

Conclusions: The results confirm the importance of government support for sport and the provision of community sport and PA facilities in China. This has implications for public health policy generally including the Western context. It remains, however, that the cultural context of engagement also needs further consideration.