Associations Between School Environments, Policies and Practices and Children's Physical Activity and Active Transportation

Association of Walking and Biking to School Policies and Active Commuting to School in Children

BACKGROUND

Active commuting to school (ACS) can be an important source of physical activity for children. Schools are an important setting for policy-related ACS promotion. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between school policies and ACS, and to assess whether this relation varied by grade.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study used data from schools recruited to the Safe Travel Environment Evaluation in Texas School study (n = 94). The percent of trips made by active travel modes was measured through tallies among third to fifth grade classrooms from 5 school districts in Central Texas in 2018-2019. School ACS policies and practices were measured through 8 survey items aggregated into a score. Linear mixed effects models were used to assess the association between policies and ACS.

RESULTS

School health policy surveys and ACS data were collected from 69 elementary schools. An average of 14.6% of trips to/from school was made using active travel modes. Schools with higher numbers of policies had significantly higher percentages of students using active travel modes (P = .03), and for each additional policy, the predicted percentage of trips made by active travel modes was 1.46% higher. There was a significant interaction effect between school policy and grade, with stronger correlations among higher grades (P = .002).

CONCLUSIONS

Results from this study demonstrate a correlation between the school policies designed to support walking and biking and ACS. Results from this study can be used to justify the use of school-based policy interventions to promote ACS.