Comparing Health Care Inequalities to Leisure Time and Activity Access Inequalities: Developing a Strategy to Improve Health Outcomes

Workshop Presentation
Lynette Chappell Williams,  Kimberly Brister  

Disparities in both health care and leisure time and activity access can result in poor health outcomes, particularly for under-represented and underserved communities, and can be impacted by social drivers of health such as socio-economic status, geographical location, support for engaging in healthy lifestyles or leisure time and activity from family and the community, and the individual's relevant behaviors, such as diet/exercise and use of alcohol and tobacco products. By applying a health equity model to addressing leisure time and activity access inequalities, we can develop a strategy that reduces barriers to leisure time and activities and allows improvement in overall health and wellbeing, taking into account the availability and knowledge of leisure activities within the community, the perceived safety of the activities, an understanding of the benefits of leisure time and activities, support from family and community to engage in leisure time and activities, and individual time constraints. In this interactive, competitive game format session, participants will develop the components of an effective strategy to improve access to leisure time and activities, with a focus on underrepresented and underserved communities, using models developed to address health inequalities. The strategy will include approaches to incentivize participation in leisure time and activities, addressing misconceptions and resistance to engaging in leisure time and activities, and measuring the success outcomes from increased participation in leisure time and activities.