Exposed children, protected parents; shade in playgrounds as a previously unstudied intervention field of cancer prevention

ABSTRACT

For children, playgrounds represent a central place for physical activity and social interaction. However, at the playground, children are often exposed to sunlight. It is therefore surprising that sun exposure and shade levels at children’s playgrounds have, to date, received very little attention internationally. The ‘PlaSMa’ study presented here addresses this gap in the research, analyzing the percentage of shaded areas compared with the total playground area and the main play area for children in 144 playgrounds in the German city of Mannheim. In addition to this hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate various social contexts. It was found that, on average, 41% of the total playground area was shaded, while only 22% of the main play area for children was in the shade. Consequently, in many cases, children play in direct sunlight, while parents and caregivers sit in the shade. These results were found to be independent of social area characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Health
• environmental impact
• environmental justice
• cancer prevention
• child health

Declaration of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest. The authors assure that there is no connection to any company whose product is mentioned in the article, or to any company that offers a competing product. The presentation of this topic is independent and the description of its content free of any product preference.