Research article
Commuting to school: Are children who walk more physically active?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(03)00205-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

The journey to school is an opportunity for increasing children's daily physical activity. However, the contribution that active commuting to school makes to overall physical activity is unknown. This study used objective measurement to investigate the physical activity patterns of children by mode of travel to school.

Methods

Primary-school children wore an accelerometer programmed to record minute-by-minute physical activity for 7 days and completed a brief questionnaire describing their usual travel to school. The total volume of physical activity and the time spent in activity of at least moderate intensity, as recorded by the accelerometer, was estimated for weekdays and the weekend, and groups of children were compared by mode of transport to school. Data were collected in May/June 2002.

Results

Of the 114 children (59 boys, 55 girls; aged 10.4±0.8 years) who took part in the study, those who walked to school (65%) were significantly more active than those who traveled by car (712.0±206.7 vs 629.9±207.2 accelerometer counts per minute, p=0.05). Analysis by gender indicated that the major differences in physical activity between travel groups were seen only in boys. Hourly activity patterns demonstrated that boys who walked to school were more active after school and throughout the evening than were car users.

Conclusions

In boys, walking to school was associated with higher physical activity after school and during the evening. Active transport may contribute to a more physically active profile, at least for boys, supporting walk-to-school initiatives to increase children's physical activity.

Introduction

T here is concern that low levels of physical activity may predispose children to the development of obesity and chronic disease in later life.1, 2 Increasing car use is perceived as a significant contributor to reduced children's daily activity. In the United Kingdom, the proportion of children younger than age 16 years traveling to school by car increased from 16% to 30% between 1985/1986 and 1997/1998, and 38% of primary-school children (aged 5–10 years) are now taken to school by car.3 The journey to school is a potentially important opportunity for establishing daily physical activity,4 and many schemes have been introduced at governmental, national, and local levels to promote active transport to school.5, 6 Despite the enthusiasm for such approaches, there is little evidence for the magnitude of the contribution that active commuting to school might make to children's overall physical activity.7

Objective monitoring of physical activity provides one approach to investigating this relationship and has recently been used to demonstrate that energy expenditure is greater in adolescents who use active commuting to school.8 In this study, minute-by-minute accelerometry was used to investigate the physical activity patterns of children who walked to school compared with those who traveled by car.

Section snippets

Participants

Children for this study were recruited from five urban primary schools in Bristol, England. To provide a representative sample of children, ten schools located in areas of the city where the catchment area would be predominantly from either upper/middle or lower social classes were identified and invited to participate. Three schools were recruited from areas of upper/middle social class (82 children) and two schools from areas of lower social class (89 children). In each school, all children

Results

All children who were asked to participate in the study (n=171) volunteered to do so, and 141 children completed all measurements. Two accelerometers were found to be faulty, and of the remaining children, 114 (59 boys, 55 girls) fulfilled the criteria for wearing the MTI/CSA. The mean age of the children was 10.4±0.8 years, and this did not differ between travel or gender groups. No significant differences in height or body mass index (BMI) were found between any groups (Boys: height 142.7±7.3

Discussion

This study is the first to use objective minute-by-minute measurement to investigate differences in the pattern of physical activity between children who walk or are driven to school. In both boys and girls, MVPA was significantly greater between 8 am and 9 am in the children who walked to school, the journey to and from school contributing 8–14 minutes per day of MVPA. During school hours, no difference was indicated between the groups for either gender, but a marked gender difference was seen

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the Health Education Authority of England.

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