Active Commuting and Physical Fitness: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Physical fitness (PF) is considered an excellent biomarker of health. One possible strategy to improve PF levels is active commuting. This review, performed accordingly to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews guidelines includes scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals up to December 2019 that aim at examining the relationship between active travel/commuting and PF. The search was performed in three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science). Sixteen studies were included in this review. Findings from the 16 studies were unclear. From the eleven studies on children and adolescents screened, eight were cross-sectional, one prospective cohort, one quasi-experimental, and one experimental. From the five studies on adults, four were experimental and one cross-sectional. Body mass, waist circumference, skinfolds, fat mass, cardiorespiratory fitness, upper and lower strength tests were performed in children, adolescents, and adults. Agility and speed tests were performed only in the young age groups. Majority of the investigations on young ages and adults have shown positive effects or relationships between active commuting and several attributes of PF. However, to avoid misconceptions, there is a need for future robust investigation to identify potential mediators or confounders in this relationship. More robust investigations are essential to understand how and whether decision-makers and public health authorities can use active travel/commuting as a strategy to improve PF in all ages.

Is children’s health-related quality of life associated with physical fitness and mode of commuting? PREVIENE Project

“…Our results provide relevant information about boys who actively commute to school, since they are more likely to improve their CRF than those who passively commute. However, a recent systematic review 12 suggested that among younger ages, active commuting by cycling is inconsistently related to PF. According to Voss and Sandercock, 39 girls and boys who regularly walked to school were fitter and significantly more likely to be categorised as fit compared with passive commuters.…”

“…11 However, a recent systematic review showed that active commuting is inconsistently related to PF. 12 A cross-sectional study of 1012 adolescents from six secondary education centres in Andalusia analysed the association of the average daily time in ACS with indicators of psychological health in adolescents. The study observed that adolescents who spent more than 15 min daily on active commuting had higher levels of subjective happiness and psychological wellbeing, although as a main limitation, the study did not control for the level of general PA. 13 Therefore, greater participation in ACS could contribute to improved health by increasing physical wellbeing.…”

12-Year Trends in Active School Transport across Four European Countries—Findings from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study

“…Reviews of the growing body of literature in the field strongly support a positive relationship between active school transport (AST) and levels of physical activity [ 9 , 10 ]. Positive associations have also been found between cycling to and from school and cardiovascular fitness [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. A relationship between AST and body composition indicators is less clear [ 9 , 10 ].…”

Active commuting to school among 36,781 Spanish children and adolescents: A temporal trend study

“…These dissimilarities might take part to differences between countries around the world in prevalence of ACS among children and adolescents showed in the current study and other studies 13,20,41‐43 . Therefore, interventions aiming to increase higher rates of ACS among Spanish children and adolescents are necessary from a public health perspective to obtain all the physical, social, and mental benefits of this mode of commuting 6,9,10 …”

“…Importantly, ACS is also associated with numerous health benefits for children and adolescents, including higher physical activity levels, 5,6 reduced risk of development of metabolic diseases, 7 and greater interpersonal relationships 8,9 and independent mobility 10 . It also provides environmental and economic benefits 11 …”