Travel by Walking Before and After School and Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls

Saksvig, Brit I.; Catellier, Diane J.; Pfeiffer, Karin A.; Schmitz, Kathryn H.; Conway, Terry L.; Going, Scott B.; Ward, Dianne S.; Strikmiller, Patty; Treuth, Margarita S.

doi:10.1001/archpedi.161.2.153

Cited by 96 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…6 Our finding that active commuting to school was inversely related to obesity differs from previous studies that did not support this relationship. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Our large sample size provided more power to detect a relationship compared with smaller studies [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and enabled us to examine relationships between active commuting and obesity, not just BMI or overweight/obesity. 31,33,34 Our result was only statistically significant after adjustments, indicating previous studies may not have detected the relationship because important covariates were not included.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…21 Although there may be other benefits associated with active commuting to school, to date there is scant evidence that it reduces childhood obesity. 20,22 A systematic review of active commuting to school in elementary school children 23 revealed that active commuters were more physically active than their peers in 11 out of 13 studies, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] but only 1 study revealed an inverse relationship with BMI. In that study, active commuting among fourth graders was associated with a lower BMI at baseline but did not significantly predict overweight/obesity at baseline or 2 years later.…”

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Influence of Sports, Physical Education, and Active Commuting to School on Adolescent Weight Status

et al. 2012

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WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Among adolescents, weight status has been inversely associated with sports participation but not active commuting or physical education. Studies of each form of physical activity have not included adequate adjustments for other physical activities, previous body weight, or diet quality. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:Estimates indicate overweight/obesity and obesity prevalence would decrease by 11% and 26%, respectively, if adolescents played on at least 2 sports teams per year; obesity prevalence would decrease by 22% if adolescents walked/biked to school 4-5 days per week. abstract OBJECTIVE: To compare the associations between weight status and different forms of physical activity among adolescents. METHODS:We conducted telephone surveys with 1718 New Hampshire and Vermont high school students and their parents as part of a longitudinal study of adolescent health. We surveyed adolescents about their team sports participation, other extracurricular physical activity, active commuting, physical education, recreational activity for fun, screen time, diet quality, and demographics. Overweight/obesity (BMI for age $ 85th percentile) and obesity (BMI for age $ 95 percentile) were based on self-reported height and weight.RESULTS: Overall, 29.0% (n = 498) of the sample was overweight/obese and 13.0% (n = 223) were obese. After adjustments, sports team participation was inversely related to overweight/obesity (relative risk CONCLUSIONS: Team sport participation had the strongest and most consistent inverse association with weight status. Active commuting to school may reduce the risk of obesity, but not necessarily overweight, and should be studied further. Obesity prevention programs should consider strategies to increase team sport participation among all students. Pediatrics 2012;130:e296-e304 AUTHORS:[

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of Sports, Physical Education, and Active Commuting to School on Adolescent Weight Status

et al. 2012

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“…The corresponding values for the Philadelphia application of the LandScan model are 44.8% and 62.2%; therefore, our data are roughly representative of both the length and mode of school commuting for the nation as a whole. They are not representative, however, of other areas of the country participating in the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) study in which only 15% of students walked to school and 1% biked (Saksvig et al, 2007). The TAAG study, however, does not focus on urban areas and, therefore, probably, is not too relevant to the Philadelphia situation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyses of school commuting data for exposure modeling purposes

Xue

McCurdy

Burke

et al. 2009

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Human exposure models often make the simplifying assumption that school children attend school in the same census tract where they live. This paper analyzes that assumption and provides information on the temporal and spatial distributions associated with school commuting. The data were obtained using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's LandScan USA population distribution model applied to Philadelphia, PA. It is a high-resolution model used to allocate individual school-aged children to both a home and school location, and to devise a minimum-time home-to-school commuting path (called a trace) between the two locations. LandScan relies heavily on Geographic Information System (GIS) data. With respect to school children attending school in their home census tract, the vast majority does not in Philadelphia. Our analyses found that: (1) about 32% of the students walk across two or more census tracts going to school and 40% of them walk across four or more census blocks; and (2) 60% drive across four or more census tracts going to school and 50% drive across 10 or more census blocks. We also find that: (3) using a 5-min commuting time interval F as opposed to the modeled ''trace'' F results in misclassifying the ''actual'' path taken in 90% of the census blocks, 70% of the block groups, and 50% of the tracts; (4) a 1-min time interval is needed to reasonably resolve time spent in the various census unit designations; and (5) approximately 50% of both the homes and schools of Philadelphia school children are located within 160 m of highly traveled roads, and 64% of the schools are located within 200 m. These findings are very important when modeling school children's exposures, especially, when ascertaining the impacts of near-roadway concentrations on their total daily body burden. As many school children also travel along these streets and roadways to get to school, a majority of children in Philadelphia are in mobile source-dominated locations most of the day. We hypothesize that exposures of school children in Philadelphia to benzene and particulate matter will be much higher than if home and school locations and commuting paths at a 1-min time resolution are not explicitly modeled in an exposure assessment. Undertaking such an assessment will be the topic of a future paper.

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“…ATS can be an additional source of PA for school age youth [23][24][25][26][27]. Rates of PA participation, however, have declined over the past 20 years and, on average, less than 15% of schoolchildren regularly walk or bicycle to school [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics associated with US Walk to School programs

Ward

Linnan

Vaughn

et al. 2007

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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Participation in Walk to School (WTS) programs has grown substantially in the US since its inception; however, no attempt has been made to systematically describe program use or factors associated with implementation of environment/policy changes.Objective: Describe the characteristics of schools' WTS programs by level of implementation. Methods:Representatives from 450 schools from 42 states completed a survey about their WTS program's infrastructure and activities, and perceived impact on walking to school. Level of implementation was determined from a single question to which respondents reported participation in WTS Day only (low), WTS Day and additional programs (medium), or making policy/ environmental change (high). Results:The final model showed number of community groups involved was positively associated with higher level of implementation (OR = 1.78, 95%CI = 1.44, 2.18), as was funding (OR = 1.56, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.92), years of participation (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.23, 1.70), and use of a walkability assessment (OR = 3.22, 95%CI = 1.84, 5.64). Implementation level was modestly associated with increased walking (r = 0.18). Conclusion:Strong community involvement, some funding, repeat participation, and environmental audits are associated with progms that adopt environmental/policy change, and seem to facilitate walking to school.

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Travel by Walking Before and After School and Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls

Abstract: Our results provide evidence that walking to and from school increases weekday minutes of total physical activity and MVPA for middle-school girls.

Cited by 96 publications

References 28 publications

Influence of Sports, Physical Education, and Active Commuting to School on Adolescent Weight Status

Influence of Sports, Physical Education, and Active Commuting to School on Adolescent Weight Status

Analyses of school commuting data for exposure modeling purposes

Characteristics associated with US Walk to School programs

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