New Self-Report Measures of Commuting Behaviors to University and Their Association with Sociodemographic Characteristics

Abstract

Active commuting provides an opportunity for increased physical activity levels by a simple, inexpensive, and easy way to be incorporated in daily routines and could be considered a steppingstone for achieving a sustainable society since it provides physical, psychological, environmental, and economic benefits. Objective: (a) to describe the commuting patterns to and from university in students regarding gender, (b) to provide new self-report variables to measure the active commuting behavior, and (c) to examine the sociodemographic characteristics associated with commuting behaviors. Material and Methods: A total of 1257 university students (52.4% females) participated (22.4 ± 5.6 years old) from three Chilean universities located in different cities. Results: 56.1% of women and 42.0% men use public bus to and from university. The commuting energy expenditure was higher in active commuting followed by public and private modes of commuting (p < 0.001). The most active commuters were those older (men: OR = 3.637; 95% CI = 1.63, 8.10; women: OR = 8.841; 95% CI = 3.94, 13.78), those who lived in university residence (men: OR = 12.432; 95% CI = 4.39, 35.19; women: OR = 3.952; 95% CI = 1.31, 11.85), belonged to low socioeconomic level (men: OR = 3.820; 95% CI = 1.43, 10.18; women: OR = 4.936; 95% CI = 1.63, 14.90), and to public universities (men: OR = 26.757; 95% CI = 10.63, 67.34; women: OR = 8.029; 95% CI = 3.00, 21.48). Conclusion: The sociodemographic characteristics may influence in the mode of commuting to university. New variables of commuting behaviors may be efficient to quantify the physical activity.

Pathways to Alternative Transport Mode Choices among University Students and Staff—Commuting to the University of Maribor since 2010

“…Participants provided information on the location from which they commute, and these data were spatially distributed using QGIS 3.22.9 (QGIS Development Team; URL: https://qgis.org/en/site/, accessed on 18 July 2022). Since respondents' addresses were not collected, the Euclidean distance between the centroids of the indicated neighborhoods and the center of the BCTF was calculated when analysing the data from the second survey [51]. The study population was then aggregated by four zones as illustrated in Figure 1 and presented in Table 1b.…”

Mass media pressure on physical build, psychological well-being and physical-healthy profile. An explanatory model in adulthood

“…A healthy and active lifestyle has numerous benefits for people’s physical and mental health ( Palma-Leal et al, 2021 ; Chillón et al, 2021 ). Physical activity can be defined as any skeletal movement produced by muscle contraction that results in significant energy expenditure ( Escalante, 2011 ).…”

Active Commuting to University Is Positively Associated with Physical Activity and Perceived Fitness

“…The main health message directed to all populations is that doing some PA is better than doing none [ 2 , 12 ]. Active commuting (AC), such as walking or cycling, provides an opportunity for increased PA levels in university students by increasing energy expenditure per minute [ 13 ]. In addition, a systematic review demonstrated that children and adolescents who walk or cycle to school can accumulate between 5 and 37 additional minutes of PA per day compared to those using passive modes of commuting [ 14 ].…”