Research article
Physical Activity Levels of Children Who Walk, Cycle, or Are Driven to School

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2005.05.009Get rights and content

Background

Active commuting to school by walking or bicycle is widely promoted to increase children’s physical activity. However, there is little data to describe the impact that travel mode, and in particular cycling, may have on activity levels.

Methods

Primary school children wore an accelerometer recording minute-by-minute physical activity, and completed questions describing travel habits. Total volume of physical activity and hourly physical activity patterns were estimated and groups of children compared by mode of travel to school. Data were collected as part of the European Youth Heart Study.

Results

A total of 332 children (average age 9.7 years, standard deviation [SD]=0.4 years) completed all measurements. Children who walked to school were significantly more physically active than those who traveled by car (accelerometer counts per minute [cpm]: 667.7, SD=233.7 vs 557.3, SD=191.4; p=0.01). Those who cycled to school recorded higher accelerometer counts than those who traveled by car, but differences were not significant. Boys who walked or cycled to school were significantly more physically active than those traveling by car (walk: 732.2 cpm, SD=253.1 vs 592.8 cpm, SD=193.9; p=0.007; cycle: 712.6 cpm, SD=249.1 vs 592.8 cpm, SD=193.9; p=0.013). In girls, walking but not cycling to school was significantly associated with higher daily physical activity levels (606.3 cpm, SD=197.7, vs 523.4 cpm, SD=185.0 cpm; p=0.05).

Conclusions

In primary school-aged children, walking to school is associated with higher levels of overall physical activity compared with those who travel to school by motorized transport. Cycling is associated with higher overall physical activity only in boys.

Introduction

The journey to school is an opportunity for children to achieve regular, daily physical activity, but increasingly children are being driven to school by car rather than walking or cycling. In the United States, approximately 50% of children aged 5 to 15 years travel to school by car, with only 10% walking.1, 2 In the United Kingdom, the proportion of primary-school–aged children (5 to 10 years) driven to school increased from 29% in 1993 to 41% in 2002.3

In response to these trends, many programs to encourage active travel to school, both by foot and by bicycle, are being implemented.4 However, there is surprisingly little research on how active commuting to school may contribute to overall levels of physical activity.5 Studies using objective measurement of physical activity have reported higher energy expenditure in Filipino adolescents who walk to school,6 and in English primary school children walking to school has been associated with higher overall levels of physical activity.7 In a nationally representative survey in the Russian Federation, omission of active commuting to school resulted in a decrease of 12% to 20% in the prevalence of 10-year-old children meeting health-related physical activity guidelines.8 Cycling to school is now unusual in many countries, with <2% of trips made by bicycle,2, 3, 8 and the contribution that cycling to school may make to overall physical activity is unknown.

In addition to the physical activity accrued in actually traveling to and from school, there is some evidence that walking to school may be associated with higher physical activity levels at other times during the day.7 In this study we used data collected in the Danish city of Odense as part of the European Youth Heart Study9 to investigate the association of active travel to school both by foot and by cycle with physical activity levels throughout the school day, compared with children traveling to school by car. Odense provides a model of a safe environment for cycling and walking, with a comprehensive program to protect children from road danger. Cycle lanes are protected from traffic by concrete barriers, there is a strong awareness of pedestrian traffic by motorists, and many cycle lanes lead directly to schools. Consequently, a significant proportion of children cycle to school. This study investigated the association between physical activity levels and mode of travel to school among primary-school–aged children.

Section snippets

Methods

This was a school-based study using data from the European Youth Heart Study, a multicenter international study addressing the prevalence and etiology of cardiovascular disease risk factors in children.9 This paper describes 9-year-old children from the Danish arm of this study. The study took place 1997/98. Schools were tested one at a time such that all children from an individual school were tested in the same period. The order of schools for testing was randomly assigned prior to

Results

A total of 590 children (280 boys and 310 girls) were recruited, of whom 417 wore the accelerometer. Data were lost from 27 participants through faulty instruments, 25 did not record sufficient weekday data for inclusion, 25 did not record MTI measurements between 7 am and 8 am, and 8 did not complete the travel questions. A final sample of 323 children (152 boys, 180 girls) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. No significant differences existed in gender, age, or body mass index (BMI) between

Discussion

This study investigated the relationship between active commuting to school and the daily physical activity levels and patterns of a representative sample of Danish primary school-aged children. Walking to school was associated with higher overall levels of physical activity compared with traveling by car, although the journey to school itself contributed relatively little. This study is the first to investigate the association between cycling to school and daily physical activity, and found

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