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Published on: March 7, 2019
The effect of a school-based active commuting intervention on children's commuting physical activity and daily
David McMinn1, David A Rowe, Shemane Murtagh
1School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, 76 Southbrae Drive, Glasgow, Scotland G13 1PP, UK. david.mcminn@abdn.ac.uk
Objective:
To investigate the effect of a school-based intervention called Travelling Green (TG) on children's walking to and from school and total daily physical activity.
Method:
A quasi-experiment with 166 Scottish children (8-9 years) was conducted in 2009. One group (n=79) received TG and another group (n=87) acted as a comparison. The intervention lasted 6 weeks and consisted of educational lessons and goal-setting tasks. Steps and MVPA (daily, a.m. commute, p.m. commute, and total commute) were measured for 5 days pre- and post-intervention using accelerometers.
Results:
Mean steps (daily, a.m., p.m., and total commute) decreased from pre- to post-intervention in both groups (TG by 901, 49, 222, and 271 steps/day and comparison by 2528, 205, 120, and 325 steps/day, respectively). No significant group by time interactions were found for a.m., p.m., and total commuting steps. A medium (partial eta squared=0.09) and significant (p<0.05) group by time interaction was found for total daily steps. MVPA results were similar to step results.
Conclusions:
TG has a little effect on walking to and from school. However, for total daily steps and daily MVPA, TG results in a smaller seasonal decrease than for children who do not receive the intervention.
