Fun, food and friends: A wearable camera analysis of children's school journeys

Abstract

BackgroundThe environments where children travel can present both risks as well as opportunities for their health and development. We aimed to explore the nature of school journeys from a child's perspective, including how exposure to environmental ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ vary by travel mode. MethodsChildren aged 11–13 years (n = 153) wore wearable cameras that automatically captured images of their surroundings every 7 s on two school days in Wellington, New Zealand. School journey segments were coded as either active school travel (AST), private car travel, public transport, waiting for transport or journey breaks. Exposure to environmental ‘goods’ (blue space, green space or sport facilities) and ‘bads’ (marketing of unhealthy food, alcohol and gambling) were identified using the same wearable camera data. Differences in exposure by journey segments were explored using Poisson regression. ResultsOn average, school journeys comprised 3.1 segments (e.g. walk – journey break – walk). Average journey time was 24.2 min and the average time contribution by segment was 29.3% for AST, 24.4% for private travel, 21.9% for public transport, 2.9% for waiting and 21.5% for journey breaks. The vast majority of journey breaks (85%) took place between AST segments and about one-third involved visits to food outlets (36.0%); breaks to visit recreation/sport settings were rare (3.3%). Journey time, journey breaks and exposure to environmental ‘bads’ were higher on afternoon school journeys. AST and journey break segments involved higher rates of exposure to both environmental ‘goods’ and ‘bads’. ConclusionsThe findings show that school journeys, particularly afternoon journeys and AST, involve frequent journey breaks and high rates of exposure to both environmental ‘goods’ and ‘bads’. To bolster opportunities for healthy behaviours during the school journey, policies could usefully focus on reducing outlets selling unhealthy products close to school and increasing natural/recreation space.