Active children use more locations for physical activity.

We examined frequency of use of 11 physical activity (PA) locations among 539 San Diego children (45.0% males, 41.2% Latinos; mean ± SD age: 6.6 ± 0.7 years) and explored associations between location use, PA and potential correlates. Parents reported child's use (visits/week) of 11 locations. Child PA was assessed by accelerometry (subsample n = 178). The most frequently used locations (mean ± SD times/week) were homes (3.2 ± 2.3) and parks/playground (1.6 ± 1.3). Children used 4.0 ± 2.0 locations in a typical week, and made a total of 12.5 ± 6.8 visits/week to all locations. Latinos used fewer locations regularly (3.6 ± 2.1 vs. 4.3 ± 1.9 locations; p < 0.001) and had fewer visits to all locations (11.4 ± 7.4 vs. 13.2 ± 6.4 visits/week; p = 0.003) than non-Latinos. Accelerometry-assessed vigorous PA (VPA) was positively associated with the number of locations regularly used (ß = 0.04, p = 0.03) and total visits to all locations among Latinos (ß = 0.09, p = 0.005). Parental PA support was positively associated with locations used (ß = 0.64, p < 0.001) and visits to all locations (ß = 2.56, p < 0.001). Children using a greater variety of locations did more VPA. Latinos making more total visits to all locations had higher VPA.