Physical activity cost of the school run: impact on schoolchildren of being driven to school (EarlyBird 22)
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《英国医生杂志》
1 University Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth PL6 8DH
Correspondence to: T J Wilkin T.Wilkin@pms.ac.uk
Introduction
Although children who walk to and from school record more activity in the process, the difference has no impact on total weekly activity. Those driven by car matched those who walked to school in overall activity levels. These results apply to 5 year olds, but the EarlyBird study is longitudinal and ideally designed to compare findings once the children move from primary school to secondary school.
Another study to have considered the impact of walking to school on physical activity in children reported that boys (though not girls) who walk to school are more active after school.5 However, measurement of after school activity included the walk home, making the analysis difficult to interpret. Curiously, girls who walked recorded no more physical activity in so doing than those who were driven. The patterns of activity in the present study were systematically the same for girls and boys, lending further robustness to our findings.
Whether children walk to and from primary school makes no difference to their total activity. This does not justify the adverse publicity given to the school run nor the government's perception of the school run's impact. There may be other benefits from walking children to their neighbourhood school, but physical activity does not appear to be one of them.
This article was posted on bmj.com on 18 August 2004: http://bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.38169.688102.F71
Contributors: TW conceived the study, supplied the hypothesis, edited the manuscript and is guarantor. LV conceived the study and edited the manuscript. BM performed the analysis and wrote the manuscript. AJ and JP recruited the subjects and collected all data.
Funding: Diabetes UK, Smith's Charity, S&SW NHS Executive R&D, Child Growth Foundation, Beatrice Laing Foundation, Abbott, Astra-Zeneca, GSK, Ipsen, Unilever, Diabetes Foundation, EarlyBird Diabetes Trust.
Competing interests: None declared.
Ethical approval: Plymouth local research ethics committee of the South and West Devon Health Authority (1999).
References
Department for Education and Skills and Department for Transport. Travelling to school: a good practice guide. London: DfT, 2003. www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/5172/DfT-good%20practice%20guide.pdf (accessed 1 Jul 2004).
Voss LD, Kirkby J, Metcalf BS, Jeffery AN, O'Riordan C, Murphy MJ, et al. Preventable factors in childhood that lead to insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus and the metabolic syndrome: the EarlyBird diabetes study 1. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab 2003;16: 1211-24.
Metcalf BS, Curnow JS, Evans C, Voss LD, Wilkin TJ. Technical reliability of the CSA activity monitor: the EarlyBird study. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2002;34: 1533-7.
Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions. National travel survey: update 1997/99. London: Stationery Office, 2000.
Cooper AR, Page AS, Foster LJ, Qahwaji D. Commuting to school: are children who walk more physically active? Am J Prev Med 2003;25: 273-6.(Brad Metcalf, statisticia)
Correspondence to: T J Wilkin T.Wilkin@pms.ac.uk
Introduction
Although children who walk to and from school record more activity in the process, the difference has no impact on total weekly activity. Those driven by car matched those who walked to school in overall activity levels. These results apply to 5 year olds, but the EarlyBird study is longitudinal and ideally designed to compare findings once the children move from primary school to secondary school.
Another study to have considered the impact of walking to school on physical activity in children reported that boys (though not girls) who walk to school are more active after school.5 However, measurement of after school activity included the walk home, making the analysis difficult to interpret. Curiously, girls who walked recorded no more physical activity in so doing than those who were driven. The patterns of activity in the present study were systematically the same for girls and boys, lending further robustness to our findings.
Whether children walk to and from primary school makes no difference to their total activity. This does not justify the adverse publicity given to the school run nor the government's perception of the school run's impact. There may be other benefits from walking children to their neighbourhood school, but physical activity does not appear to be one of them.
This article was posted on bmj.com on 18 August 2004: http://bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.38169.688102.F71
Contributors: TW conceived the study, supplied the hypothesis, edited the manuscript and is guarantor. LV conceived the study and edited the manuscript. BM performed the analysis and wrote the manuscript. AJ and JP recruited the subjects and collected all data.
Funding: Diabetes UK, Smith's Charity, S&SW NHS Executive R&D, Child Growth Foundation, Beatrice Laing Foundation, Abbott, Astra-Zeneca, GSK, Ipsen, Unilever, Diabetes Foundation, EarlyBird Diabetes Trust.
Competing interests: None declared.
Ethical approval: Plymouth local research ethics committee of the South and West Devon Health Authority (1999).
References
Department for Education and Skills and Department for Transport. Travelling to school: a good practice guide. London: DfT, 2003. www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/5172/DfT-good%20practice%20guide.pdf (accessed 1 Jul 2004).
Voss LD, Kirkby J, Metcalf BS, Jeffery AN, O'Riordan C, Murphy MJ, et al. Preventable factors in childhood that lead to insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus and the metabolic syndrome: the EarlyBird diabetes study 1. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab 2003;16: 1211-24.
Metcalf BS, Curnow JS, Evans C, Voss LD, Wilkin TJ. Technical reliability of the CSA activity monitor: the EarlyBird study. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2002;34: 1533-7.
Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions. National travel survey: update 1997/99. London: Stationery Office, 2000.
Cooper AR, Page AS, Foster LJ, Qahwaji D. Commuting to school: are children who walk more physically active? Am J Prev Med 2003;25: 273-6.(Brad Metcalf, statisticia)