Providing effective shade in summer recreation spaces can reduce children's risk of skin cancer. This study explored the quantity and protective quality of shade in Wellington, New Zealand playgrounds. Two researchers visited 50 randomly-selected playgrounds during peak ultraviolet radiation (UVR) hours in summer and recorded the mean shade cover of playground equipment, seats, tables and open areas. A Solarmeter was used to calculate the proportion of UVR blocked by each built structure and tree. The results found that 95% of playground equipment and 64% of sitting and eating areas had no shade protection. Trees blocked a mean of 80.1% (95% CI: 66.0 - 94.1) of direct solar UVR, but mostly covered open areas, not playground equipment, seats and tables. The findings demonstrate that Wellington playgrounds have insufficient shade available. Increased shade in Wellington playgrounds is urgently needed to protect children from harmful UVR exposure, particularly through planting trees with heavy foliage and building structures with large, protective roofing. This may well be the case for other regions of NZ and for other countries where UVR exposure is dangerous. The method used in this study provides a reliable means to evaluate shade. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 January 2021.
All research outputs
#10,319,626
of 34,372,222 outputs
Outputs from Photochemistry & Photobiology
#1,230
of 3,502 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#149,212
of 495,684 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Photochemistry & Photobiology
#5
of 16 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,372,222 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 69th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,502 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 495,684 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 16 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 68% of its contemporaries.
