Active School Transport among Children from Canada, Colombia, Finland, South Africa, and the United States: A Tale of Two Journeys

Silvia A. González, Olga L. Sarmiento, Pablo D. Lemoine, Richard Larouche, Jose D. Meisel, Mark S. Tremblay, Melisa Naranjo, Stephanie T. Broyles, Mikael Fogelholm, Gustavo A. Holguin, Estelle V. Lambert and Peter T. Katzmarzyk
Additional contact information
Silvia A. González: School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
Olga L. Sarmiento: School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
Pablo D. Lemoine: Centro Nacional de Consultoría, Bogota 110221, Colombia
Richard Larouche: Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada
Jose D. Meisel: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Ibagué, Ibagué 730001, Colombia
Mark S. Tremblay: Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada
Melisa Naranjo: School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
Stephanie T. Broyles: Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA
Mikael Fogelholm: Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Gustavo A. Holguin: School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
Estelle V. Lambert: Research Centre for Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport, Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
Peter T. Katzmarzyk: Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: Walking and biking to school represent a source of regular daily physical activity (PA). The objectives of this paper are to determine the associations of distance to school, crime safety, and socioeconomic variables with active school transport (AST) among children from five culturally and socioeconomically different country sites and to describe the main policies related to AST in those country sites. The analytical sample included 2845 children aged 9–11 years from the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment. Multilevel generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the associations between distance, safety and socioeconomic variables, and the odds of engaging in AST. Greater distance to school and vehicle ownership were associated with a lower likelihood of engaging in AST in sites in upper-middle- and high-income countries. Crime perception was negatively associated to AST only in sites in high-income countries. Our results suggest that distance to school is a consistent correlate of AST in different contexts. Our findings regarding crime perception support a need vs. choice framework, indicating that AST may be the only commuting choice for many children from the study sites in upper-middle-income countries, despite the high perception of crime.

Keywords: active school transport; distance; safety; Canada; Colombia; Finland; South Africa; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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