Abstract
BackgroundTo evaluate the impact of a walking school bus (WSB) program on student transport in a low-income, urban neighborhood.MethodsThe design was a controlled, quasi-experimental trial with consecutive cross-sectional assessments. The setting was three urban, socioeconomically disadvantaged, public elementary schools (1 intervention vs. 2 controls) in Seattle, Washington, USA. Participants were ethnically diverse students in kindergarten-5th grade (aged 5–11 years). The intervention was a WSB program consisting of a part-time WSB coordinator and parent volunteers. Students' method of transportation to school was assessed by a classroom survey at baseline and one-year follow-up. The Pearson Chi-squared test compared students transported to school at the intervention versus control schools at each time point. Due to multiple testing, we calculated adjusted p-values using the Ryan-Holm stepdown Bonferroni procedure. McNemar's test was used to examine the change from baseline to 12-month follow-up for walking versus all other forms of school transport at the intervention or control schools.ResultsAt baseline, the proportions of students (n = 653) walking to the intervention (20% +/- 2%) or control schools (15% +/- 2%) did not differ (p = 0.39). At 12-month follow up, higher proportions of students (n = 643, p = 0.001)) walked to the intervention (25% +/- 2%) versus the control schools (7% +/- 1%). No significant changes were noted in the proportion of students riding in a car or taking the school bus at baseline or 12-month follow up (all p > 0.05). Comparing baseline to 12-month follow up, the numbers of students who walked to the intervention school increased while the numbers of students who used the other forms of transport did not change (p < 0.0001). In contrast, the numbers of students who walked to the control schools decreased while the numbers of students who used the other forms of transport did not change (p < 0.0001).ConclusionA WSB program is a promising intervention among urban, low-income elementary school students that may promote favorable changes toward active transport to school.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00402701
Highlights
To evaluate the impact of a walking school bus (WSB) program on student transport in a low-income, urban neighborhood
We report that three WSBs were developed and maintained throughout the study period and each "bus" had its own set route to school from different locations in the surrounding neighborhoods
The shortest WSB briefly went door-to-door to pick up several students who were concentrated in a neighborhood housing project
Summary
To evaluate the impact of a walking school bus (WSB) program on student transport in a low-income, urban neighborhood. Increasing children's physical activity has been shown to decrease obesity [2] and is a major goal for Healthy People 2010 [3]. Walking to school is a promising form of physical activity that has the potential to make population-level changes to improve children's health. Walking to school is associated with higher levels of overall physical activity [4,5,6,7], is consistent with obesity prevention recommendations [8,9], and is one of the objectives for children in Healthy People 2010 [3]. Reasons for the decline in children walking to school are likely related to increased distance from home to school, changes to the built environment, and parental concerns [14]. Parents' concern about their children's safety (traffic and crime-related) in particular was cited as the most important barrier to allowing their children to walk to school [11,14,15]
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