Background: Soil structure is mainly composed of sand, silt, clay, and organic materials. Organisms can live in the soil. The large number of stray cats in the cities of Iran is a major environmental and health problem. Toxoplasma oocysts are shed with the feces of cats, so soil is known as a potential source of transmission of toxoplasmosis. The aim of this study was to determine the soil cont...

Children are the risk group for toxocariasis because they often play in public parks which are easily contaminated and also because pica is common among children. In the current study, soil samples from 111 parks in Aydin, a city in western Turkey, were assessed. Out of 111, 21 (18.91%) were contaminated with Toxocara spp eggs. Our public parks showed a high toxocariasis risk in our city and th...

Background. The recreational use of urban spaces has increased significantly in recent years, due to a trend towards healthier lifestyles in which regular exercise plays a leading role. Examples include walking, running or biking, activities for which large urban green parks provide excellent conditions. These parks, located within the city, are intended for public use and include landscape fea...

OBJECTIVES Parks provide places for people to experience nature, engage in physical activity, and relax. We studied how residents in low-income, minority communities use public, urban neighborhood parks and how parks contribute to physical activity. METHODS In 8 public parks, we used direct observation to document the number, gender, race/ethnicity, age group, and activity level of park users...

Community-based physical activity (PA) programs in Latin America have been recognized because of the use of available environmental resources to offer PA classes. Yet, the evaluation of programs focused on PA classes involving dancing in public spaces is limited. The aim of this study was to assess the physical activity levels, park use, and the contextual characteristics of public parks with a...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE The soil of public squares and parks may be contaminated with the infective stages of parasites because of the presence of stray animals in these parks. Many people take a rest in these places and they may be at risk of infection with parasites because the infective stages of parasites can survive for months, or even years, in spite of the factors of weather. OBJECT...

City parks, important environments built for physical activity, play critical roles in preventing chronic diseases and promoting public health. We used five commonly used park indicators to investigate the spatiotemporal trend of city parks in mainland China between 1981 and 2014 at three scales: national, provincial and city class. City parks in China increased significantly with a turning poi...

Anthropogenic noise is debatably one of the most common threats to national parks' resources. Park visitors and workers generally suffer from adverse effects of noise from on- and off-road vehicles. The parks, studied here, are located in strictly urban areas, surrounded by streets with intense vehicle traffic. This study assesses the soundscape of urban parks in two cities of Odisha State, on ...