Trend in active transportation to school among Swiss school children and its associated factors: three cross-sectional surveys 1994, 2000 and 2005

Abstract

BackgroundGiving the rising trend in childhood obesity in many countries including Switzerland, strategies to increase physical activity such as promoting active school travel are important. Yet, little is known about time trends of active commuting in Swiss schoolchildren and factors associated with changes in walking and biking to school.MethodsBetween 1994 and 2005, information about mobility behaviour of children aged 6-14 years was collected within three Swiss population based national travel behaviour surveys. Mode of transport to school was reported for 4244 children. Weighted multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess active school travel time trends and their influencing factors.ResultsMore than 70% of Swiss children walked or biked to school. Nevertheless, the proportion of children biking to school decreased (p = 0.05, linear trend), predominately in urban areas, and motorized transportation increased since 1994 (p = 0.02). Distance to school did not change significantly over time but availability of bikes decreased (p < 0.001) and number of cars per household increased (p < 0.001). The association between survey year and bike use was significantly modified by living in an urban area (OR (95%CI): 1.0, 0.63 (0.44-0.90), 0.71 (0.49-1.03), respectively for 1994, 2000 and 2005) and by distance to school (OR (95%CI): 1.0, 0.65 (0.40-1.05), 0.50 (0.23-0.79) for the same years and for children who lived more than a mile away from school).ConclusionsPrograms to encourage safe biking and to limit car use as mode of transport to school are warranted to stop this trend.

Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of active commuting to school in a nationwide representative sample of German adolescents

“…Similarly, other European studies (Sere et al, 2008;Borrestad et al, 2011;Bringolf Isler et al, 2008;Chillon et aL, 2009) on urban areas also showed considerably higher prevalence of active commuting (65 to 88%) than in our study. Thus, rural urban differ ences may explain the discrepancies in prevalence of active commut ing to schooL Representative studies showed that 71.4% of school children in Switzerland and 12.9% of students in the United States were active commuters (Grize et al, 2010;McDonald, 2007). Approximately 20% of secondary school students were active commuters to and 30% from school in Ontario (Canada) and in Australia (van der Ploeg et al, 2008;Wong et al, 2011 ).…”

Global physical activity levels: surveillance progress, pitfalls, and prospects

“…States, 131 Switzerland, 132 and Canada. 133 A review focusing on different domains of activity concluded that the available evidence does not support the notion that overall physical activity levels and sport participation have declined recently in youth.…”

Relationships between active school transport and adiposity indicators in school-age children from low-, middle- and high-income countries

“…4 Within the context of the nutrition and PA transition, 6 in which PA patterns are often the result of environmental and societal changes, it is important to understand the role of activities that can be incorporated into everyday life, including active school transport (AST).The prevalence of AST, unfortunately, has declined in several HIC including Canada, 7 the United States, 8 Australia 9 and Switzerland. 10 In LMIC the data are limited, but studies conducted in Brazil, China, Mozambique and Vietnam have also shown that the AST trend in this countries mirrored HIC trends. [11][12][13][14] Active travel to school is one way in which children can increase their levels of PA and prevent obesity.…”