Purpose. To examine associations among individual, social, and environmental barriers and children's walking or cycling to school.
Design. Exploratory cross-sectional study.
Setting. All eight capital cities in Australia.
Subjects. Parents (N = 720) of school-aged children (4-13 years; 27% response rate 49% parents of boys,).
Measures. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for parental reporting of barriers to their children's walking or cycling to school, based on a computer-assisted telephone interview.
Results. Forty-one percent of children walked or cycled to school at least once per week. Multivariable analyses found inverse associations with individual ("child prefers to be driven" [OR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.3-0.6], "no time in the mornings" [OR 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-0.8]); social ("worry child will take risk" [OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.3-0.9], "no other children to walk with" [OR = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.4-0.99], "no adults to walk with" [OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.4-0.9]); and environmental barriers ("too far to walk" [OR = 0.1, 95% CI = 0.0- 0.1], "no direct route" [OR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.2-0. 7]) and positive associations with "concern child may he injured in a road accident" (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1-3.1) and active commuting. Conclusion. Working with parents, schools, and local authorities to improve pedestrian, skills and environments may help to overcome barriers.
History
Journal
American journal of health promotion
Volume
22
Issue
2
Pagination
107 - 113
Publisher
American Journal of Health Promotion
Location
Troy, Mich.
ISSN
0890-1171
eISSN
2168-6602
Language
eng
Publication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Copyright notice
2007 by American Journal of Health Promotion, Inc.