Introduction: Physical activity (PA) in Canadian adolescents is low, and active travel to school
is an important source of PA. Neighbourhood walkability is linked to youth PA, and may also be
related to school travel behaviour. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to explore the association
between adolescents’ school travel-PA, school travel mode, and walkability in urban and
suburban neighbourhoods.
Methods: Adolescents (n=234; grade 8-10) were sampled from schools in a high walkability
urban (n=52) and a low walkability suburban neighbourhood (n=182). PA was measured by
accelerometry (ActiGraph; ≥4d 600 min·d-1), and converted from activity counts to minutes of
moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Travel-PA was derived from minutes of MVPA accrued
during the hour before and after school. Travel mode was self-reported (i.e., walk, bike, transit,
school bus, car). Analyses were stratified by sex and travel mode (Stata v.10).
Results: Valid travel data were provided by 224 participants (49.6% girls). Prevalence of travel
modes differed significantly between urban and suburban boys (χ2=25.4, p<0.001) and girls
(χ2=21.0, p<0.001). Valid PA and travel data were available for an analytical sample (n=91,
58.2% girls). Differences in collapsed modes (active vs. passive) were not significant between
cohorts for boys (χ2=1.5, p=0.22) or girls (χ2=0.3, p=0.61). Minutes of travel-PA were
significantly higher in urban than suburban boys for both active (29.4±9.2 vs. 11.0±9.2, p<0.001)
and passive travel (22.6±2.7 vs. 8.8±7.4, p<0.001). There were no significant differences in girls.
Conclusion: These results suggest that neighbourhood walkability may be associated with
school travel-PA in boys, regardless of travel mode. More research is needed to understand this
association in girls. The research also showed travel modes were different between
neighbourhood cohorts, but when modes were collapsed into larger categories (passive and
active) they were not. Future research should analyse school travel-PA by detailed travel modes
whenever possible. / Graduate / 0573 / afrazer@uvic.ca
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/4707 |
| Date | 24 July 2013 |
| Creators | Frazer, Amanda Donatienne Claudia |
| Contributors | Naylor, Patti-Jean |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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