{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T07:10:35Z","timestamp":1783581035204,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":65,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,21]],"date-time":"2023-03-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1679356800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"UGA President\u2019s Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Physical activity (PA) plays a vital role in children\u2019s physical and mental health. The built, natural, and socio-demographic environmental variables affect children\u2019s PA behaviors in various ways. However, few studies focus on systematically measuring the environmental spatiality to enhance PA research. We propose a Physical activity Access Disparity (PAD) index for children. This study aims to design, test, and apply an integrated approach to the children\u2019s PAD index. We adopt five dimensions of \u201caccess\u201d to healthcare to measure the children\u2019s PAD index for the United States (US) and the state of Georgia at the county level. The PAD index sorts 18 environmental measures with 23 variables into accessibility, availability, accommodation, affordability, and acceptability (5 As) for children\u2019s PA. We use the self-organizing map (SOM) method to measure how the 5 As affect the PAD index values. According to the result, the children\u2019s PAD index\u2019s ranking normalizes from 0 to 1 and identifies \u201cplay oases\u201d to \u201cplay deserts\u201d in the US and Georgia using diverse 5 As combinations. The children\u2019s PAD index shows Low disparity in the north and coastal region and High disparity in Deep South states in the US. Moreover, the PAD index shows Low disparity and High disparity in the north and south of Georgia. The PAD index provides a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers to analyze disparity in children\u2019s \u201caccess\u201d to the PA environment. The flexible parameters and the weighing scheme also extend the method\u2019s generality and allow users to customize the PAD index based on local preferences and conditions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi12030134","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,22]],"date-time":"2023-03-22T06:00:01Z","timestamp":1679464801000},"page":"134","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Measuring and Mapping Physical Activity Disparity (PAD) Index Based on Physical Activity Environment for Children"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Jue","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0199-9509","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lan","family":"Mu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0468-0387","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Janani","family":"Rajbhandari-Thapa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Policy & Management, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30606, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"WHO (2022, October 02). 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