Environmental and socio-demographic associates of children's active transport to school : a cross-sectional from the URBAN Study
Journal article
Oliver, Melody, Badland, Hannah, Mavoa, Suzanne, Witten, Karen, Kearns, Robin, Ellaway, Anne, Hinckson, Erica, Mackay, Lisa and Schluter, Philip. (2014). Environmental and socio-demographic associates of children's active transport to school : a cross-sectional from the URBAN Study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 11, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-70
Authors | Oliver, Melody, Badland, Hannah, Mavoa, Suzanne, Witten, Karen, Kearns, Robin, Ellaway, Anne, Hinckson, Erica, Mackay, Lisa and Schluter, Philip |
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Abstract | Background: Active transport (e.g., walking, cycling) to school (ATS) can contribute to children’s physical activity and health. The built environment is acknowledged as an important factor in understanding children’s ATS, alongside parental factors and seasonality. Inconsistencies in methodological approaches exist, and a clear understanding of factors related to ATS remains equivocal. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of associates of children’s ATS, by considering the effects of daily weather patterns and neighbourhood walk ability and neighbourhood preferences (i.e., for living in a high or low walkable neighbourhood) on this behaviour. Methods: Data were drawn from the Understanding Relationships between Activity and Neighbourhoods study, a cross-sectional study of physical activity and the built environment in adults and children in four New Zealand cities. Parents of participating children completed an interview and daily trip diary that assessed their child’s mode of travel to school, household and individual demographic information, and parental neighbourhood preference. Daily weather data were downloaded from New Zealand’s national climate database. Geographic information systems-derived variables were calculated for distance to school and neighbourhood walkability. Bivariate analyses were conducted with ATS and potential associates; factors related to ATS at p < 0.20 were considered simultaneously in generalized estimation equation models, and backwards elimination of non-significant factors was conducted; city was treated as a fixed effect in all models. Results: A total of 217 children aged 6.5-15 years participated in this study. Female sex, age, city, household income, limited/no car access, residing in zone of school, shorter distance to school, neighbourhood self selection, rainfall, and sunlight hours were simultaneously considered in multivariate generalised estimation equation modelling (all p < 0.20 in bivariate analyses). After elimination of non-significant factors, age (p = 0.005), shorter distance to school (p < 0.001), city (p = 0.03), and neighbourhood self selection (p = 0.04) remained significantly associated with ATS in the multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Distance to school is the prevailing environmental influencing factor on children’s ATS. This study, in conjunction with previous research, suggests that school siting is likely an important associate of children’s ATS. |
Keywords | Built environment; Walkability; Walking; Cycling; Transport; Distance; New Zealand |
Year | 01 Jan 2014 |
Journal | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity |
Journal citation | 11, pp. 1-12 |
Publisher | BioMed Central |
ISSN | 1479-5868 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-11-70 |
Web address (URL) | https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1479-5868-11-70 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 1-12 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
02 Jun 2014 | |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 27 May 2014 |
Deposited | 22 May 2024 |
Additional information | © 2014 Oliver et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. |
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. | |
Place of publication | United Kingdom |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/907zw/environmental-and-socio-demographic-associates-of-children-s-active-transport-to-school-a-cross-sectional-from-the-urban-study
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Publisher's version
OA_Mavoa_2014_Environmental_and_socio-demographic_associates_of_childrens.pdf | |
License: CC BY 2.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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