Abstract
Background: Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) correlates have been mostly studied in relation to adolescents’ home neighbourhoods, but not so much in relation to the environment of their schools’ neighbourhoods. We sought to investigate how objective environmental measures of the schools’ vicinity are related to adolescents’ self-reported LTPA. Methods: Individual data from the Quebec High School Students Health Survey (QHSSHS) were matched with schools’ socioeconomic indicators, as well as geographic information system-based indicators of their built environments. Self-reported levels of LTPA during the school year were assessed according to intensity, frequency and index of energy expenditure. Associations per gender between covariates and LTPA were estimated using ordinal multilevel regression with multiple imputations. Results: Boys (21% of which were highly active) were more active than girls (16% of which were highly active) (p ≤ 0.01). The incremental variance between schools explained by the contextual variables in the final models was higher among girls (7.8%) than boys (2.8%). The number of parks or green spaces within 750 m around their schools was positively associated with student LTPA in both genders. Conclusions: The promotion of parks around schools seems to be an avenue to be strengthened.
Highlights
Promoting healthy lifestyle habits among individuals can slow down the progression of the obesity epidemic [1,2,3,4,5]
We examined the associations between individual characteristics and the outcome in bivariate regression models and only variables that were significantly associated with Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) were included in the multivariate models
We found that among girls, there existed a cross-level interaction between the number of parks or green spaces within 750 m of their schools and their education level, showing that a decrease of LTPA along with the education level is more intense among girls with a low number of parks around their schools (OR = 0.89; 95% CI= 0.81, 0.98)
Summary
Promoting healthy lifestyle habits among individuals can slow down the progression of the obesity epidemic [1,2,3,4,5]. One of the habits that helps to reduce the risk of obesity is the regular practice of adequate physical activity (PA) [8]. In developed countries, promoting leisure time physical activity (LTPA) among adolescents has been established as one of the most promising avenue in terms of potential health benefits [9]. Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) correlates have been mostly studied in relation to adolescents’ home neighbourhoods, but not so much in relation to the environment of their schools’ neighbourhoods. Methods: Individual data from the Quebec High School Students Health Survey (QHSSHS) were matched with schools’ socioeconomic indicators, as well as geographic information system-based indicators of their built environments. Results: Boys (21% of which were highly active) were more active than girls (16% of which were highly active) (p ≤ 0.01)
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