It may sound simple, but adding a neighborhood park or playground can lower children’s obesity rates and improve their physical fitness, says new research from Ball State University. And parks might reap immediate and long-term savings in health care.”Neighborhood parks and playgrounds provide physical locations for children to engage in outdoor physical activity and to develop physically active lifestyles,” said Maoyong Fan, a Ball State economics professor who conducted the study with Yanhong Jin, a Rutgers University professor. “These parks simply make children more fit. The children get to play outdoors and enjoy life much more than those who don’t have access to such facilities.”