The effect of a school-based active commuting intervention on children's commuting physical activity and daily physical activity

doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.02.013

Preventive Medicine

Volume 54, Issue 5, 1 May 2012, Pages 316-318

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.02.013 Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the effect of a school-based intervention called Travelling Green (TG) on children's walking to and from school and total daily physical activity.

Method

A quasi-experiment with 166 Scottish children (8–9 years) was conducted in 2009. One group (n = 79) received TG and another group (n = 87) acted as a comparison. The intervention lasted 6 weeks and consisted of educational lessons and goal-setting tasks. Steps and MVPA (daily, a.m. commute, p.m. commute, and total commute) were measured for 5 days pre- and post-intervention using accelerometers.

Results

Mean steps (daily, a.m., p.m., and total commute) decreased from pre- to post-intervention in both groups (TG by 901, 49, 222, and 271 steps/day and comparison by 2528, 205, 120, and 325 steps/day, respectively). No significant group by time interactions were found for a.m., p.m., and total commuting steps. A medium (partial eta squared = 0.09) and significant (p < 0.05) group by time interaction was found for total daily steps. MVPA results were similar to step results.

Conclusions

TG has a little effect on walking to and from school. However, for total daily steps and daily MVPA, TG results in a smaller seasonal decrease than for children who do not receive the intervention.

Highlights

► The effect of a walk to school intervention was investigated among 8–9 year olds. ► Educational lessons and goal setting tasks did not increase walking to school. ► Walk to school interventions should be targeted to the parents of younger children. ► Older children may have greater autonomy to change their school travel behaviours.

Introduction

The school journey is a prime opportunity for children to be physically active (Tudor-Locke et al., 2001), however children actively commute less than they used to (Buliung et al., 2009, McDonald, 2007, van der Ploeg et al., 2008). Active travel interventions are needed to reverse this trend.

Travelling Green is a 6-week school-based intervention designed to increase walking to school via lessons and goal-setting activities. The intervention has been shown to increase children's active commuting distance and decrease the distance travelled using inactive modes (McKee et al., 2007). These are positive findings; however the study by McKee et al. (2007) had limitations. Physical activity was self-reported, which is less accurate than objective measures (Rowlands and Eston, 2007), and the study sample was relatively small (n = 60).

The purpose of the present study was to carry out a more robust evaluation of Travelling Green by measuring physical activity objectively and by using a larger sample.

Section snippets

Method

Data were collected as part of the Strathclyde Evaluation of Children's Active Travel (SE-CAT). The methods are described fully elsewhere (McMinn et al., 2011). Ethical approval was granted for all procedures and participants provided informed consent.

Results

Baseline sample characteristics are displayed in Table 1, and mean step and MVPA values are displayed in Table 2.

Similar patterns were found for step and MVPA results. No significant group by time interactions were found for morning, afternoon, and total commuting steps and MVPA (p > 0.05). A large and significant (p < 0.05) group by time interaction was found for total daily steps (partial eta squared = 0.09)(Cohen, 1988) and total daily MVPA (partial eta squared = 0.08), indicating that the seasonal

Discussion

Travelling Green appeared to have no effect on active commuting behaviour. This is unexpected given that the intervention has previously been shown to increase active school travel (McKee et al., 2007). Three factors may explain why the intervention appears to be ineffective. First, pre-intervention measures were obtained during late summer/early fall when weather conditions were conducive to walking and post-intervention measures were obtained during late fall/early winter when weather

Conclusions

Travelling Green has no effect on school travel, but may mitigate against the detrimental effects of seasonality on daily activity levels. Changing school travel behaviours may be more complex than simply delivering a school-based intervention.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The evaluation was part-funded by grants from the National Physical Activity Research Evaluation Group and Sustrans, a charity supporting active transport choices.

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Children's possibility to be physically active is linked to their parent's socioeconomic status. The use of active travel has the potential to increase daily physical activity among children. Parents are the gate-keepers to children using active school travel (AST) and their perceptions has shown to impact children's travel mode. Few studies have explored parents' perceptions about AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods and there is a lack of knowledge of their perceptions of the physical and social environment associated with school travel.
To explore parents’ perceptions towards AST when living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Twelve parents participated in semi-structured interviews, and a qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.
The findings show that parents faced dilemmas, striving to facilitate AST. Parents perceptions are presented as A, B, C categories that are likely to be important when promoting AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods, Acknowledging AST advantages, Balancing barriers, and Creating opportunities to use AST.
Despite having a positive attitude towards AST, insecure neighborhoods and social exclusion affect parents'descisions about AST. When promoting AST in disadvantaged neighborhoods, measures to enable AST should include efforts supporting community building, social participation, road safety and ways of promoting bicycling. Engaging children in AST could have a positive influence on their independent mobility, thereby impacting their development and preparing them for the future.
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Active School Travel (AST) programs, such as Safe Routes to School (SR2S), have been predominantly evaluated using self-reported methods that are susceptible to bias (e.g., social desirability). Objective methods, such as observational route counts, are underutilised in AST program evaluations, and existing studies have not assessed instrument inter-rater reliability. This study aimed to strengthen the evidence base supporting the use of objective measurements to estimate school children's AST behaviour by adapting an existing observational route counting instrument to align with the route-level aims of SR2S programs and assessing its inter-rater reliability.
The ROute Observation for Travelling to School (ROOTS) instrument was adapted from Crawford and Gerrard's Ride2School instrument. Reliability data were collected across four days from three purposively selected public primary schools (one school per day with one school repeated due to rain). Four pairs of trained observers were assigned to different routes at observation points approximately 100–200m away from the same school on the same day. Without conferring, the observational pairs recorded all active travel behaviour (i.e., children walking, cycling, scootering, skating to school), for four 15-minute intervals between 8:15am and 9:15am. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were computed to assess the inter-rater reliability of each observational pair.
The total number of observations made by the four observational pairs was 353.0 (M = 88.3, SD = 27.1). ICCs for observational pairs ranged between 0.841 (95% CI: 0.758, 0.897) and 1.000, reflecting good to excellent inter-rater reliability.
The ROOTS instrument had good to excellent inter-rater reliability, which supports the use of observational route counts to provide AST evaluations with an objective, reliable alternative to self-reported methods. The ROOTS instrument may be particularly useful for researchers and practitioners evaluating route-level AST behaviour in SR2S programs to tailor these programs to the route-level needs of children and parents.
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Fifteen papers reported intervention effects between genders (Bungum et al., 2014; Buttazzoni et al., 2019; Chen et al., 2018; Christiansen et al., 2014; Collins and Kearns, 2010; Faulkner et al., 2014; Hollein et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2018; Lambe et al., 2017; Mendoza et al., 2011, 2017; Molina-García and Queralt, 2016; Sahlqvist et al., 2019; Sevil et al., 2019; Villa-González et al., 2017), while 11 papers reported no significant differences (Arsenio et al., 2018; Cuffe et al., 2012; Ducheyne et al., 2013, 2014; Goodman et al., 2016; Lachapelle et al., 2013; Loo et al., 2019; Love et al., 2019; Mammen et al., 2014a; McLaughlin and Glang, 2010; Sayers et al., 2012). Information regarding gender was collected and/or controlled for in 25 papers, however, these papers did not go on to consider gender as a variable of analysis (Buliung et al., 2011; Coombes and Jones, 2016; Crawford and Garrard, 2013; DiMaggio et al., 2015; DiMaggio and Li, 2013; Ginja et al., 2017; Gyergyay, 2013; Hatfield et al., 2017, 2019; Hoelscher et al., 2016; Holeva-Eklund et al., 2019; Isensee et al., 2018; Ji et al., 2017; Malakellis et al., 2017; Mandic et al., 2018a, 2018b; Marconi et al., 2018; McMinn et al., 2012; Østergaard et al., 2015; Pérez-Martín et al., 2018; Rodriguez et al., 2019; Stark et al., 2018; Vanwolleghem et al., 2014; Verhoeven et al., 2016; Villa-González et al., 2015). Of the papers that found gender differences, the majority (n = 11/15) stated that boys increased their AST more than girls as a result of the intervention (Buttazzoni et al., 2019; Chen et al., 2018; Christiansen et al., 2014; Faulkner et al., 2014; Hollein et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2018; Lambe et al., 2017; Mendoza et al., 2011, 2017; Sevil et al., 2019; Villa-González et al., 2017).
Trends over the last half century have shown that fewer children today are engaging in active modes of travel to and from school than in previous generations. Interventions promoting active school travel (AST) can be effective at reversing these trends and increasing rates of AST among children. This paper aims to explore (1) how studies of AST interventions have considered or framed multiple equity factors, namely those related to gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnic background, in the design and evaluation of AST interventions, and (2) to what extent studies of AST interventions report these equity considerations in their analyses, outcomes, programming, and discussions.
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¹: Present address: School of Culture and Lifestyle, University of Derby, 1 Devonshire Road, Buxton, England, SK17 6RY.

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Brief Original ReportThe effect of a school-based active commuting intervention on children's commuting physical activity and daily physical activity

Abstract

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusions

Highlights

Introduction

Section snippets

Method

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Conflict of interest statement

Prev. Med.

Prev. Med.

Am. J. Prev. Med.

J. Transp. Geogr.

Prev. Med.

Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavior Sciences

Calibration of two objective measures of physical activity for children

J. Sports Sci.

Brief Original Report
The effect of a school-based active commuting intervention on children's commuting physical activity and daily physical activity