Article
Walking to school and traffic exposure in Australian children.
University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, Vic.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (impact factor:
1.2).
07/1997;
21(3):286-92.
pp.286-92
Source: PubMed
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Citations (0)
- Cited In (4)
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Chapter: Potential environmental determinants of physical activity in youth.
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ABSTRACT: Introduction Physical activity (PA) is a health enhancing behaviour: regular PA is associated with reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, some forms of cancer, and depression (1, 2). Also among the young current and future health benefits can be obtained through engaging in physically active lifestyles: it helps building strong bones, healthy joints, a strong heart, a good mental health and helps to prevent today's major Public Health concern – obesity. Despite these health benefits, many young people in the United Stated (3) but also in Europe (4) are not taking part in PA to the level recommended to protect their health. Longitudinal studies have documented that: the largest decrease in PA occurs during the adolescent years (5-7); PA levels established in youth tend to track into adulthood (8, 9); and that its lifelong development is favourably (i.e. protectively) associated with major cardiovascular risk factors (10). Thus, a major rationale for promoting regular PA in youngsters is therefore to facilitate a carryover of healthful habits into adult life, contributing to a life-long protection from major chronic diseases risk. Childhood is the stage in life at which important behavioural choices are emerging and trajectories for adult life may be set. Adolescence is a time when individuals develop heightened autonomy and begin making decisions about eating and activity (11). PA promotion is thus recognized as a priority in current Public Health promotion efforts particularly in children and adolescents (1). Given the short time frame in which the obesity prevalence has increased in the last decades, also in children and adolescents, most experts postulate that this is most likely due to changes in behaviour than in biology (12-16), and that such changes in obesity inducing behaviours are driven by changes in our environment (17-22). We therefore need to understand, measure and alter such environments for effective health promotion efforts (23-26). An essential step in health promotion planning is indeed the identification of the determinants of the target behaviour(s) (27), since these can only be changed by influencing their mediators or determinants (28). The promotion of health behaviours in the last decades has placed most attention to health education, i.e., "planned learning experiences to facilitate voluntary change in behaviour" (29) as the primary tool to encourage the general public to adopt healthy lifestyles. Health education has thus been strongly focused on conscious behaviour change and on improving individuals' knowledge, attitudes, and other cognitions that could increase the likelihood of adopting healthy lifestyle behaviours. However, people's abilities and opportunities to make healthy behavioural choices may be strongly dependent on the environments they live in. Recognizing this ecological focus, health promotion has thus been defined as Chapter 2. 33 "the combination of educational and environmental supports for actions and conditions of living conducive to health"(29). This paradigm shift has led to a stronger attention on the environmental barriers and opportunities for healthy behaviours. These can be especially relevant to children and adolescents since they have less autonomy in their behavioural choices. An early overview of health-related behaviours in children and adolescents emphasized the importance of social and physical environmental factors and urged these to be targeted in health promotion research and preventive strategies, as an alternative to person-centred approaches only (30). Through the course of the last decade, specific recommendations for research on the determinants of PA in youth have also emphasized the need to examine (modifiable) environmental influences on youth PA and increase the number of levels and settings in which research is conducted (e.g. home, neighbourhood, school) (31-33). Knowledge hereby attained is needed to better inform the development of effective intervention strategies attempting to improve PA levels among youngsters. Now that more and more studies focus on potential environmental influences on children's and adolescents' PA behaviour, it is important to get a detailed overview of the evidence these studies have provided so far, in order to better define a research agenda for this area. In the year 2000, a comprehensive review of correlates of PA (including demographic, health status, psychological, behavioural attributes and skills, social and cultural factors, and factors of the physical environment) in children and adolescents identified several variables, which were consistently associated with children/adolescent's PA levels (34). These included some personal factors such as perceived physical competence and intention, but also some social and physical environmental factors such as direct help and support from parents and significant others, access to programs/facilities, opportunities to be active and time spent outdoors. We now review and update the evidence provided by that review, but focusing specifically and characterizing into more detail the environmental correlates of PA in children and adolescents. Generally put, the environment can be defined as everything and anything outside the person. To enable a structured review we were in need of a conceptual framework to categorize the various environmental factors studied. Different classifications of possible environmental determinants of health behaviours have been proposed (25, 26, 35-37), and these classifications show great overlap and similarities. In the present review we have adopted the Analyses Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) conceptual framework (38) to classify potential environmental determinants of PA in children and adolescents. This framework was specifically developed to conceptualise 'obesogenic' (i.e. those that promote excess energy intake and low PA) environments, enabling the identification of specific areas to be targeted by intervention settings and strategies by type-(i.e., physical, socio-cultural, economic and political) and size-(i.e., micro settings such as the home, the school or the neighbourhood, and macro-settings such as the health care or the media).01/2005: pages 32-76; , ISBN: 90-810258-1-3 -
Article: Environmental correlates of physical activity in youth - a review and update.
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ABSTRACT: Obesogenic environments are thought to underlie the increased obesity prevalence observed in youth during the past decades. Understanding the environmental factors that are associated with physical activity (PA) in youth is needed to better inform the development of effective intervention strategies attempting to halt the obesity epidemic. We conducted a systematic semi-quantitative review of 150 studies on environmental correlates of youth PA published in the past 25 years. The ANalysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework was used to classify the environmental correlates studied. Most studies retrieved used cross-sectional designs and subjective measures of environmental factors and PA. Variables of the home and school environments were especially associated with children's PA. Most consistent positive correlates of PA were father's PA, time spent outdoors and school PA-related policies (in children), and support from significant others, mother's education level, family income, and non-vocational school attendance (in adolescents). Low crime incidence (in adolescents) was characteristic of the neighbourhood environment associated with higher PA. Convincing evidence of an important role for many other environmental factors was, however, not found. Further research should aim at longitudinal and intervention studies, and use more objective measures of PA and its potential (environmental) determinants.Obesity Reviews 04/2007; 8(2):129-54. · 7.04 Impact Factor -
Article: Personal, family, social, and environmental correlates of active commuting to school.
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ABSTRACT: Active commuting to school may be an important opportunity for children to accumulate adequate physical activity for improved cardiovascular risk factors, enhanced bone health, and psychosocial well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine personal, family, social, and environmental correlates of active commuting to school among children. Cross-sectional study of 235 children aged 5 to 6 years and 677 children aged 10 to 12 years from 19 elementary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by parents, and the older children. The shortest possible routes to school were examined using a geographic information system. Among both age groups, negative correlates of active commuting to school included parental perception of few other children in the neighborhood and no lights or crossings for their child to use, and an objectively assessed busy road barrier en route to school. In younger children, an objectively assessed steep incline en route to school was negatively associated with walking or cycling to school. Good connectivity en route to school was negatively associated with walking or cycling to school among older children. Among both age groups, children were more likely to actively commute to school if their route was <800 meters. There were no associations with perceived energy levels or enjoyment of physical activity, weight status, or family factors. For children, creating child-friendly communities and providing skills to safely negotiate the environment may be important. Environmental correlates of active transport in children and adults may differ and warrant further investigation.American Journal of Preventive Medicine 01/2006; 30(1):45-51. · 4.04 Impact Factor
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Keywords
Australian cities
cent confidence interval
cross-sectional survey
documented sex differences
exercise habits
injury rates
lesser car ownership
Logistic regression analysis
lower occupational category
non-English-speaking background
parent self-administered questionnaire
pedestrian activity
population-based data
road traffic injury
small proportions
sociodemographic factors
socioeconomic status
street crossings
streets unaccompanied
strongest predictor
