HEAL Paper Classics: Free Recreation and Children’s Physical Activity

• Post by: Anastasia Soukhov
• 10:11AM May 13, 2026
• No Comment

HEAL Paper Classics is a monthly series highlighting influential research that has shaped conversations around youth health, equity, and the environments where young people live, learn, and grow. Each post revisits a key paper from the HEAL or closely aligned work and reflects on why it matters today.

Smith, C., Clark, A.F., Wilk, P., Tucker, P. and Gilliland, J.A., (2020). Assessing the effectiveness of a naturally occurring population-level physical activity intervention for children. Public Health.

Overview: Low physical activity (PA) among children remains a persistent public health concern worldwide. While many interventions target individual behaviours or school settings, fewer studies examine large-scale, community-wide solutions that reduce structural barriers to participation. This paper evaluates a city-wide intervention in London, Ontario — the Grade 5 ACT-i-Pass (G5AP) — which provided free access to recreational facilities and programs for children. The study offers rare evidence on how population-level interventions can shape children’s activity patterns in real-world settings.

What this study does: This study is a pre-post evaluation of a naturally occurring, population-level intervention, examining how free access to recreation influences children’s physical activity. Specifically, the authors:

• Evaluated the Grade 5 ACT-i-Pass (G5AP), a program offering free access to recreation facilities and activities across the city
• Collected survey data from over 600 Grade 5 students at baseline and 6-month follow-up
• Measured physical activity using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C)
• Examined changes in PA across key subgroups (e.g., gender, immigrant status, parental support)
• Used a social ecological framework to assess how intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental factors relate to changes in activity

Key findings:

• Physical activity increased significantly over the 6-month period following access to the G5AP program
• Girls experienced greater increases in PA than boys, helping to narrow well-established gender gaps in activity
• Visible minority and immigrant children showed notable gains, suggesting the program may help reduce inequities in access to physical activity
• Children with lower parental support at baseline increased their PA the most, indicating the intervention may compensate for gaps in support at home
• Simply improving access is not sufficient for all groups. For instance, children in lone-parent households did not experience the same benefits, pointing to additional structural barrier.

Why is it a “Classic”? This paper stands out because it:

• Evaluates a real world, population-level intervention, rather than a controlled, small-scale program
• Demonstrates the potential of removing financial barriers to increase children’s physical activity
• Uses a social ecological lens to highlight how individual, social, and environmental factors interact
• Provides evidence that community-wide programs can improve equity by benefiting groups with historically lower activity levels
• Bridges research and practice by assessing an intervention developed through cross-sector community collaboration

For HEAL and related work, this study is especially influential. It shows how changing the opportunity structure of cities (through access, programming, and community partnerships) can meaningfully shape children’s health behaviours. It also reinforces that interventions must go beyond access alone, addressing the broader social conditions that enable or constrain participation.