Physical activity has many benefits in young people, including promoting favourable levels of risk factors such as adiposity, blood pressure and triglyceride levels, [
1‐
3] and maintenance of psychological health [
4]. However, data from the Health Survey for England (2008) showed that just 24% of girls and 32% of boys aged 2 to 15 years achieved at least 60 min of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) each day, the UK recommended physical activity guideline to maintain good health [
5]. In addition to the current low levels of physical activity, specific physical activity behaviours in young people such as walking and cycling to school have declined in recent decades [
6].
Using active modes of travel (ie, walking and cycling) may benefit the health of young people. In a systematic review, 55% of studies demonstrated an inverse association between active travel to school and weight status/body composition. In addition, the review identified 5 papers that suggested active travel may also be beneficial for cardio-respiratory fitness [
7]. For example, Cooper et al. [
8] found that children and adolescents who cycled to school were nearly five times more likely to be in the top quartile of fitness than those who used motorised modes. It may be that these differences in health between travel mode groups are a result of additional physical activity accumulated from using active modes of travel. However, the majority of studies identified in the review were of a cross-sectional design. These findings may therefore also be attributable to “healthy” young people choosing to use active modes of travel to school. Other components of fitness such as muscular strength and power have been shown to be positively associated with health during childhood [
9‐
11]. Moreover, flexibility in childhood may also reduce future risk of chronic musculoskeletal problems [
12]. It is plausible to assume that higher levels of active travel (a component of physical activity) during childhood may be favourably associated with these components but little research exists in this area.
Two systematic reviews have examined associations between mode of travel to school and overall physical activity in young people demonstrating that active modes of travel can equate to an additional 5 to 37 min/day in MVPA in comparison to those who use motorised transport (passive travel) [
13,
14]. Nevertheless, some studies found null associations between travel mode and overall levels of physical activity [
15,
16]. This may be explained by the young age (5 to 11 years) of the participants in the two studies. Younger children (but not older children) may only be allowed to travel to school by active modes when the school is located close to their home (therefore only a short distance may be travelled actively), or if they are accompanied by an adult (thus restricting spontaneous play en-route), therefore limiting younger children’s time spent in physical activity when using active modes of travel to school. More recently, Smith et al. found a change from a passive to an active mode of travel resulted in an increase in daily MVPA (mean increase: boys 9mins and girls 6mins) [
17,
18]. Despite growing evidence on the association between mode of travel to school and physical activity levels, the association between mode of travel to non-school destinations (e.g. to a friend’s house or to the local shops) and physical activity levels is unknown. Thus, there is a need to broaden the research area into examining the role of active travel to non-school destinations. These journeys may provide an opportunity for young people to incorporate additional physical activity into their daily lives. For example, a study of 5 to 6 year old Australian children found that boys and girls walked or cycled for an average of seven trips per week, but only two trips, for both sexes, related to the school journey [
19]. Furthermore, in the UK, non-school journeys made up more than 70% of all journeys made by young people under 17 years in 2008 [
20]. To our knowledge only one study has examined the role of travel mode to non-school destinations in young people, showing that active travel to non-school destinations was associated with higher overall levels of physical activity, independent of travel mode to school [
17]. However, this study used a rural sample that was not ethnically diverse (white ethnicity = 91%). The present study aims to investigate the association of travel mode (to non-school and school destinations) with health markers and physical activity levels in an ethnically diverse sample of inner-city primary and high school children residing in Camden, London, UK.