The study examines the connections between minority status, park use behavior, and park-related perceptions using recent survey data from three low-income neighborhoods in Minneapolis, MN. Blacks and foreign-born residents are found to underutilize parks. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians perceive fewer health benefits of parks than whites, including the benefits of parks for providing exercise/relaxation opportunities and family gathering spaces. Foreign-born residents, blacks, and Hispanics perceive greater and unique barriers to park use in terms of not feeling welcome, cultural and language restrictions, program schedule and pricing concerns, and/or facility maintenance and mismatch concerns. When designing park strategies for addressing health disparities, we recommend to focus the efforts on increasing awareness of park-related health benefits and removing specific park use barriers among minority and foreign-born communities. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Immigrant Parks Minority health disparities Perceptions Ethnicity race Behavior health equity

perception Indians, North American Caucasian demography human middle aged Ethnic Groups statistics and numerical data ethnic group health status language African American Hispanic Americans American Indian Residence Characteristics Young Adult Humans migrant psychology Hispanic Adolescent Asian Americans male Emigrants and Immigrants female Asian American Socioeconomic Factors recreational park socioeconomics Parks, Recreational cultural factor adult European Continental Ancestry Group utilization Cultural Characteristics African Americans