Elsevier

Journal of Transport & Health

Volume 12, March 2019, Pages 115-129
Journal of Transport & Health

How are the built environment and household travel characteristics associated with children's active transport in Melbourne, Australia?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.01.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Walkable school environments promote AT throughout the day, not just to school.

  • Pedestrian infrastructure should be combined with promotion of AT to households.

  • Household travel survey data were combined with objective built environment data.

  • Trip-chaining by parents and children was related to less active transport (AT).

  • Adult accompaniment was associated with motorised rather than active transport.

Abstract

Background

Children's active transport (AT) is a potential source of habitual physical activity with established health benefits. We aimed to examine built environment and household travel characteristics as predictors of AT to school and total daily duration of physical activity accumulated via AT.

Methods

Cross-sectional household travel survey data from 713 households with children aged 5–12 years (n = 1024) residing < 2 km from school (i.e. walking distance) across Melbourne, Australia (2012–16) were combined with objectively-measured distance to school and walkability (based on intersection density, housing density, land use mix) around home and school. Multilevel multivariable modified-Poisson regression analyses examined built environment variables (distance to school, walkability, traffic) and household travel behaviours (children's and adults’ trip chaining, adult accompaniment to school) as predictors of: (1) AT to school; (2) total daily duration of AT of ≥20 min; adjusted for spatial clustering (at SA1 level) and household variables (income, employment, cars, bicycles).

Results

Most children (80%) had adult accompaniment to school but only 28% walked/cycled with an adult. Overall, 39% of children used AT to school and 24% accrued ≥ 20 min of AT-related physical activity. AT to school was positively associated with higher (rather than lower) walkability around home and school, direct travel (not trip chaining) and residing close to school (< 0.75 km rather than ≥ 1.25 km), and negatively associated with adult accompaniment and longer distance travelled onward in adult trip chains. AT of ≥ 20 min duration daily was positively associated with higher walkability around school, direct travel to/from school; and negatively associated with adult accompaniment to, and distance trip chained onward from, school.

Conclusions

To increase AT to school it is worth investing in infrastructure designed to improve walkability around schools, coupled with campaigns that target whole households to promote age-appropriate independent mobility rather than adult accompaniment, which tends to involve children being driven.

Section snippets

Background

Regular physical activity during childhood is beneficial for bone mineral density (Christoffersen et al., 2015, Strong et al., 2005), as well as reduced prevalence of overweight/obesity and risk factors for cardiovascular disease (Strong et al., 2005, WHO, 2010). Consequently, health authorities worldwide recommend that school-aged children engage in at least 60 min of physical activity of moderate-to-vigorous intensity per day (Australian Government Department of Health, 2014, WHO, 2010).

Sample

The sample was derived from 46,562 people from 18,152 households, who responded in 2012–16 to the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity (VISTA), a cross-sectional household travel survey of a stratified, clustered random sample of residents in private households in Mesh Blocks2

Statistical analysis

ArcGIS 10.4 (ESRI, 2016, Redlands, CA) software was used for spatial analysis and STATA 14.2 (StataCorp, 2015, College Station, Texas) was used for descriptive and statistical analysis.

Descriptive analysis involved tabulation of sample characteristics. Associations between built environment, household travel behaviours and the two AT outcomes were tested by fitting multilevel multivariable regression models. Initially, two separate sets of models were fitted for each outcome. The first fitted

Results

Descriptive data for all children (N = 1024; 50% male) and their households (n = 713) are presented in Table 1. Most children (86%) had at least one adult carrer in full-time employment, 12% lived in households with very low income, 9% in sole parent households and 26% in households with one car or less. Overall, 39% of children used AT to school (35% walked, 4% cycled) and 24% accrued 20 min of PA via AT daily. Few (0.2%) used public transport. Among those who used motorized transport to

Discussion

This study is, to our knowledge, among the first to investigate, using separate and fully adjusted models, associations of objective measures of the built environment around home and school, and self-reported travel behaviour of household members travelling to and from school (accompaniment, trip chaining and accessibility of work), with children's AT to school and their accrual of PA via AT throughout the day. We found that built environment factors, including distance to and walkability

Conclusions

This study provides important evidence for urban planners, policy-makers and health promotion practitioners of how both the built environment and travel behaviours of household members are related to children's AT. Our findings demonstrate that in order to increase AT to school (and transport-related PA) it is worth investing in infrastructure designed to improve walkability around schools. This should be coupled with campaigns that target whole households to promote age-appropriate independent

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge:

  • Dr. Jan Scheurer for providing access to Spatial Network Analysis for Multi-Modal Urban Transport Systems (SNAMUTS) data.

  • Dr. Koen Simons for his contribution of advice on statistical analysis.

Funding

This study is funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project Grant (LP140100680), in partnership with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR), and the Victorian Roads Corporation (VicRoads). The contents of this manuscript are the responsibility of the authors and do not reflect the views of the funding bodies.

SM is supported by an National Health and Medical Research Council (

Data statement

We do not wish to make the data available at this stage as we are still using the data for other analyses. However, VISTA data are available at: https://transport.vic.gov.au/data-and-research/vista/vista-data-and-publications/.

Conflict of interest

None.

References (76)

  • S.L. Handy et al.

    How the built environment affects physical activity: views from urban planning

    Am. J. Prev. Med.

    (2002)
  • C. Ho et al.

    Intra-household interactions in tour-based mode choice: the role of social, temporal, spatial and resource constraints

    Transp. Policy

    (2015)
  • C. Ho et al.

    Intra-household interactions in transport research: a review

    Transp. Rev.

    (2015)
  • P.M. Hurvitz et al.

    How far from home? The locations of physical activity in an urban U.S. setting

    Prev. Med.

    (2014)
  • D. Lang et al.

    Understanding modal choice for the trip to school

    J. Transp. Geogr.

    (2011)
  • P.H. Lee et al.

    alidity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF): a systematic review

    Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act.

    (2011)
  • N.C. McDonald

    Household interactions and children's school travel: the effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school

    J. Transp. Geogr.

    (2008)
  • N.C. McDonald et al.

    Impact of the safe routes to school program on walking and biking: eugene, Oregon study

    Transp. Policy

    (2013)
  • D. Merom et al.

    Public health perspectives on household travel surveys: active travel between 1997 and 2007

    Am. J. Prev. Med.

    (2010)
  • J. O'Connor et al.

    A qualitative study of ‘fear’ as a regulator of children's independent physical activity in the suburbs

    Health Place

    (2013)
  • J. Salmon et al.

    Trends in children's physical activity and weight status in high and low socio-economic status areas of Melbourne, Victoria, 1985–2001

    Aust. New Zealand J. Public Health

    (2005)
  • S. Schoeppe et al.

    Associations of children's independent mobility and active travel with physical activity, sedentary behaviour and weight status: a systematic review

    J. Sci. Med. Sport

    (2013)
  • I.N. Sener et al.

    On jointly analyzing the physical activity participation levels of individuals in a family unit using a multivariate copula framework

    J. Choice Model.

    (2010)
  • W.B.M.D. Strong et al.

    Evidence based physical activity for school-age youth

    J. Pediatr.

    (2005)
  • H. Van der Ploeg et al.

    Trends in Australian children traveling to school 1971–2003: burning petrol or carbohydrates?

    Prev. Med.

    (2008)
  • J. Veitch et al.

    What predicts children's active transport and independent mobility in disadvantaged neighborhoods?

    Health Place

    (2017)
  • E.O.D. Waygood et al.

    Transport and child well-being: an integrative review

    Travel Behav. Soc.

    (2017)
  • X. Ye et al.

    An exploration of the relationship between mode choice and complexity of trip chaining patterns

    Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol.

    (2007)
  • ABS

    Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 – Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas

    (2016)
  • P.C. Austin et al.

    Measures of clustering and heterogeneity in multilevel Poisson regression analyses of rates/count data

    Stat. Med.

    (2018)
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics

    Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) SA1

    (2015)
  • Australian Government Department of Health, 2014. Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines....
  • T.K. Behrens et al.

    A profile of active transportation in Colorado Public Schools, 2014–2015

    J. Community Health

    (2017)
  • M. Boarnet et al.

    California's safe routes to school program: impacts on walking, bicycling, and Pedestrian safety

    J. Am. Plann. Assoc.

    (2005)
  • R.N. Buliung et al.

    Urban form and household activity‐travel behavior

    Growth Change

    (2006)
  • B. Chaix et al.

    The “eesidential” effect fallacy in neighborhood and health studies: formal definition, empirical identification, and correction

    Epidemiology

    (2017)
  • T. Christoffersen et al.

    Does the frequency and intensity of physical activity in adolescence have an impact on bone? The Tromsø study, fit futures

    BMC Sport. Sci. Med. Rehabil.

    (2015)
  • R. Cole et al.

    Residential proximity to school and the active travel choices of parents

    Health Promot. J. Aust.

    (2007)
  • Cited by (47)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    Equal contribution.

    View full text