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Active Transportation

Active school transport and weekday physical activity in 9–11-year-old children from 12 countries

International Journal of Obesity Supplements volume 5, pages S100–S106 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

Active school transport (AST) may increase the time that children spend in physical activity (PA). This study examined relationships between AST and weekday moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity (LPA), sedentary time (SED) and total activity during naturally organized time periods (daily, before school, during school and after school) in a sample of children from 12 countries.

METHODS:

The sample included 6224 children aged 9–11 years. PA and sedentary time were objectively measured using Actigraph accelerometers. AST was self-reported by participants. Multilevel generalized linear and logistic regression statistical models were used to determine associations between PA, SED and AST across and within study sites.

RESULTS:

After adjustment for age, highest parental educational attainment, BMI z-score and accelerometer wear time, children who engaged in AST accumulated significantly more weekday MVPA during all studied time periods and significantly less time in LPA before school compared with children who used motorized transport to school. AST was unrelated to time spent in sedentary behaviors. Across all study sites, AST was associated with 6.0 min (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.7–7.3; P<0.0001) more of weekday MVPA; however, there was some evidence that this differed across study sites (P for interaction=0.06). Significant positive associations were identified within 7 of 12 study sites, with differences ranging from 4.6 min (95% CI: 0.3–8.9; P=0.04, in Canada) to 10.2 min (95% CI: 5.9–14.4; P<0.0001, in Brazil) more of daily MVPA among children who engaged in AST compared with motorized transport.

CONCLUSIONS:

The present study demonstrated that AST was associated with children spending more time engaged in MVPA throughout the day and less time in LPA before school. AST represents a good behavioral target to increase levels of PA in children.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the ISCOLE External Advisory Board and the ISCOLE participants and their families who made this study possible. A membership list of the ISCOLE Research Group and External Advisory Board is included in Katzmarzyk et al. (this issue). ISCOLE was funded by The Coca-Cola Company. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    K D Denstel, S T Broyles, T V Barreira, T S Church, G Hu, C Tudor-Locke & P T Katzmarzyk

  2. Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    R Larouche, J-P Chaput & M S Tremblay

  3. School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    O L Sarmiento

  4. Department of Exercise Science, University of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY, USA

    T V Barreira

  5. Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    M Fogelholm

  6. St Johns Research Institute, Bangalore, India

    R Kuriyan & A Kurpad

  7. Department of Human Biology, Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    E V Lambert

  8. Alliance for Research in Exercise Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    C Maher & T Olds

  9. CIFI2D, Faculdade de Desporto, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    J Maia

  10. Centro de Estudos do Laboratório de Aptidão Física de São Caetano do Sul (CELAFISCS), São Paulo, Brazil

    V Matsudo

  11. Department of Recreation Management and Exercise Science, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

    V Onywera

  12. Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    M Standage

  13. Department of Kinesiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    C Tudor-Locke

  14. Tianjin Women’s and Children’s Health Center, Tianjin, China

    P Zhao

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  1. K D Denstel
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  2. S T Broyles
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Correspondence to P T Katzmarzyk.

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Competing interests

MF has received a research grant from Fazer Finland and has received an honorarium for speaking for Merck. AK has been a member of the Advisory Boards of Dupont and McCain Foods. RK has received a research grant from Abbott Nutrition Research and Development. VM is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Actigraph and has received an honorarium for speaking for the Coca-Cola Company. TO has received an honorarium for speaking for the Coca-Cola Company. JZ has received a grant from The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Denstel, K., Broyles, S., Larouche, R. et al. Active school transport and weekday physical activity in 9–11-year-old children from 12 countries. Int J Obes Supp 5 (Suppl 2), S100–S106 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijosup.2015.26

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