ABSTRACT

Research questions

To what extent are racial, socioeconomic and health characteristics of US counties associated with access to a specific recreational resource – disc golf courses? We contribute to the literature by using a national scope and exploring how these relationships vary along the rural-urban continuum.

Research methods

We use data from six sources to (1) map the county-level locations of disc golf courses, (2) provide descriptives of the sociodemographic and health characteristics for US counties, including by rural-urban distinctions and by presence/absence of at least one disc golf course and (3) show via multivariate logistic regression the relationship between these county-level variables and the presence of at least one disc golf course for US counties and by rural-urban distinction (N = 3,138).

Results and findings

Disc golf courses exist throughout the US, but are prevalent in the upper Midwest, the mid-Atlantic I-95 corridor, the Pacific Coast and New England. A greater proportion of urban counties have disc golf courses than rural counties. Counties are more likely to have a disc golf course as poverty and the percent of black residents decrease and as educational attainment and percent of residents under age 25 increase. However, when looking only at urban counties, the relationship between poverty and disc golf availability reverses – poverty is positively associated with the presence of a disc golf course. Healthier counties are associated with a higher likelihood of disc golf presence but do little to improve model fit.

Implications

The findings provide evidence in favor of both sides of an ongoing empirical debate about racial and socioeconomic inequities in access to recreational resources. At the national level, the findings support the many studies showing that poorer, black communities tend to have fewer activity-supportive resources than richer, white communities. However, the results also partially support several urban-based studies that have refuted these relationships. While contributing to this important debate, we also argue that disc golf courses can be creatively built in areas with fewer financial resources, thereby lessoning the inequities in access to health-benefiting public recreation.

中文翻译：

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美国圆盘高尔夫球场分布的差异

摘要

研究问题

美国各县的种族、社会经济和健康特征在多大程度上与获得特定娱乐资源（圆盘高尔夫球场）相关？我们通过使用全国范围并探索这些关系如何在城乡连续体中变化来为文献做出贡献。

研究方法

我们使用来自六个来源的数据来 (1) 绘制飞盘高尔夫球场的县级位置图，(2) 提供美国县的社会人口学和健康特征的描述，包括城乡差异和存在/不存在至少一个飞盘高尔夫球场和 (3) 通过多元逻辑回归显示这些县级变量与美国各县至少有一个飞盘高尔夫球场之间的关系，并按城乡区分 (N = 3,138 ) 。

结果和发现

美国各地都有圆盘高尔夫球场，但在中西部上游、大西洋中部 I-95 走廊、太平洋海岸和新英格兰地区更为普遍。与农村县相比，更大比例的城市县拥有圆盘高尔夫球场。随着贫困和黑人居民比例的下降，以及教育程度和 25 岁以下居民比例的增加，县更有可能拥有飞盘高尔夫球场。然而，当只看城市县时，贫困与飞盘高尔夫球可用性之间的关系相反——贫困与飞盘高尔夫球场的存在呈正相关。较健康的县与存在飞盘高尔夫的可能性较高相关，但对改善模型拟合几乎没有作用。

启示

调查结果提供的证据支持正在进行的关于在获得娱乐资源方面的种族和社会经济不平等的实证辩论的双方。在国家层面，研究结果支持许多研究表明，较贫穷的黑人社区往往比富裕的白人社区拥有更少的活动支持资源。然而，结果也部分支持了一些反驳这些关系的城市研究。在为这一重要辩论做出贡献的同时，我们还认为，可以在财政资源较少的地区创造性地建造飞盘高尔夫球场，从而消除在获得有益健康的公共娱乐活动方面的不平等现象。