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Public open spaces (POS) are "publicly owned spaces such as parks, green areas, squares, marketplaces, streets and highways which are of public access". Some attributes could increase or decrease participants' attendance. Thus, reliable and valid audit tools are needed in order to measure these attributes. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to assess POS features within the Mexico City context. The Mexican Public Open Spaces Tool (MexPOS) was developed based on (1) two validated POS audit tools, (2) several visits to the POS, (3) pilot testing, and (4) multiple work sessions with a group of specialists. The original tool included 181 items divided into nine sections. Trained personnel visited and evaluated 944 POS in Mexico City. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to examine the construct validity of the items and the relationship between the subscales. The final model resulted in seven factors: (1) Food and Wellness Environment (α = 0.15), (2) Maintenance (α = 0.81), (3) Amenities (α = 0.72), (4) Legibility (α = 0.59), (5) Security (α = 0.48), (6) Perceived Environment (α = 0.65), and (7) Urban Environment (α = 0.58). Our study highlights the relevance of using a validated tool to measure POS characteristics related to participants' attendance to help assess infrastructure improvements and identify priority areas for changing socio-urban environments for physical activity.

City planning policies influence urban lifestyles, health, and sustainability. We assessed policy frameworks for city planning for 25 cities across 19 lower-middle-income countries, upper-middle-income countries, and high-income countries to identify whether these policies supported the creation of healthy and sustainable cities. We systematically collected policy data for evidence-informed indicators related to integrated city planning, air pollution, destination accessibility, distribution of employment, demand management, design, density, distance to public transport, and transport infrastructure investment. Content analysis identified strengths, limitations, and gaps in policies, allowing us to draw comparisons between cities. We found that despite common policy rhetoric endorsing healthy and sustainable cities, there was a paucity of measurable policy targets in place to achieve these aspirations. Some policies were inconsistent with public health evidence, which sets up barriers to achieving healthy and sustainable urban environments. There is an urgent need to build capacity for health-enhancing city planning policy and governance, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests BG-C reports Senior Principal Research Fellowship (GNT1107672) and grant (number 1061404) support from National Health and Medical Research Council during the conduct of the study. CH was also supported by National Health and Medical Research Council through the Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities (grant number 1061404). GB reports grants from the Public Good Projects, during the conduct of the study. JFS reports personal fees from Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) physical activity programmes of Gopher Sport, and travel support from Rails to Trails Conservancy, outside the submitted work. JFS also has a copyright on SPARK physical activity programmes with royalties paid by Gopher Sport. DA was supported by an Impact Acceleration Award from the Economic and Social Research Council and funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund administered by the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland, UK. SL was supported by the experiential fellowships from the College of Social Science and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. EC and JFS were supported by the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. AAF is supported by a research fellowship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (#309301/2020-3). TB was supported by a Doctoral Scholarship from Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. AP-R was supported by the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Vic, Spain, and funding was provided by the Barcelona Provincial Council, Barcelona, Spain and City Council of Vic, Vic, Spain. CDGR is supported by the Portugal National Funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Instituto Público, Lisbon, Portugal, under the Research Fellowship (UI/BD/152231/2021). DS was supported by Washington University in St Louis, Center for Diabetes Translation Research, St Louis, MO, USA (P30DK092950 from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health) and by the Cooperative Agreement Number U48DP006395 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RFH was supported by the UK Research and Innovation—National Health and Medical Research Council (project reference MR/T038934/1). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of any of the funding agencies supporting this work. Funding sources had no role in writing the manuscript or in the decision to submit for publication. All other authors report no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)