By Sydney Murphy HealthDay Reporter
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY September 9, 2022 (HealthDay News). Research suggests that kids who bike, skateboard, or ride their bikes to school as children are more likely not to stop when they grow up, which can lead to health benefits.
“The walk to school is a wonderful moment in the day that provides children a glimpse of living an active lifestyle,” said study co-author David Tulloch, a professor of landscape architecture at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey. “When people start walking early, it can have a lasting impact on their health.”
According to the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), 11% of children in America ride their bikes or walk to school. This rate hasn’t changed over the past decade.
The study found that children are more likely to continue “active commuter” (travelling by foot, bike, or skateboard) if they are taught how to do it early in life.
To see if active commuting stays the same over time, the researchers asked parents and caregivers about their kids’ school travel habits twice — two to four years apart — between 2009 and 2017. These families were mostly from low-income New Jersey cities like Trenton, New Brunswick, Newark, Newark, and Camden.
Tulloch and his colleagues determined the distance to the school and noted the area.
Researchers found that more 75% of active commuting kids did it at the start of the study and continued to do so for two to four years. Researchers followed up on those who had never done active commuting before.
The study showed that those who walked, biked or skateboarded to school were seven times more likely than those who did not do so at the beginning.
“Most kids don’t achieve the 60 minutes per day of physical activity that they’re recommended to get,” said lead author Robin DeWeese, an assistant research professor at Arizona State University. “Active commuting to school is one way to get more of that activity.”
DeWeese recommends that schools and communities encourage active commuting in the first grades. It may help students later.
Continued
The perceptions and demographic characteristics of the area affected how commuters travel. Children whose parents were not born in the United States were less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to bike or walk to school. Kids whose parents considered their neighbourhood safe were 2.5 times more likely than others to walk or cycle to school.
Tulloch stated that the distance between school and home had the greatest and most consistent impact on commutes. Tulloch said that as children age, the distance to school increases and active commuting is less likely once they turn high school.
Tulloch stated that smarter urban design could reverse this trend. Remote drop-offs and “walking school buses” (groups of students chaperoned by volunteer parents) can encourage children to actively commute at a young age. Tulloch also mentioned that infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks, tree-lined streets and other infrastructure can make walking easier.
“One of the most visited tourist sites in New York City is the High Line, a green walkable space with no cars,” Tulloch said in a university news release. “We should be doing this type of planning everywhere – especially in school zones.”
The journal published the findings. Preventive Medicine Reports .
Additional information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more statistics on children’s physical activity.
SOURCE – Rutgers University press release, Sept. 6, 2022
