Trend in active transportation to school among Swiss school children and its associated factors: three cross-sectional surveys 1994, 2000 and 2005

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Eva Martin¹  Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer²  Bettina Bringolf-Isler²  Leticia Grize² 

[1] Federal Institute of Sports, 2532, Magglingen, Switzerland;Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Zurich, Switzerland;Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland;University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;

关键词: Travel Behaviour;    Active Transportation;    Active Travel;    Travel Survey;    Public Health Relevance;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5868-7-28

 received in 2010-01-12, accepted in 2010-04-15,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGiving the rising trend in childhood obesity in many countries including Switzerland, strategies to increase physical activity such as promoting active school travel are important. Yet, little is known about time trends of active commuting in Swiss schoolchildren and factors associated with changes in walking and biking to school.MethodsBetween 1994 and 2005, information about mobility behaviour of children aged 6-14 years was collected within three Swiss population based national travel behaviour surveys. Mode of transport to school was reported for 4244 children. Weighted multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess active school travel time trends and their influencing factors.ResultsMore than 70% of Swiss children walked or biked to school. Nevertheless, the proportion of children biking to school decreased (p = 0.05, linear trend), predominately in urban areas, and motorized transportation increased since 1994 (p = 0.02). Distance to school did not change significantly over time but availability of bikes decreased (p < 0.001) and number of cars per household increased (p < 0.001). The association between survey year and bike use was significantly modified by living in an urban area (OR (95%CI): 1.0, 0.63 (0.44-0.90), 0.71 (0.49-1.03), respectively for 1994, 2000 and 2005) and by distance to school (OR (95%CI): 1.0, 0.65 (0.40-1.05), 0.50 (0.23-0.79) for the same years and for children who lived more than a mile away from school).ConclusionsPrograms to encourage safe biking and to limit car use as mode of transport to school are warranted to stop this trend.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Grize et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010