Neighborhood safety, school programming, and active transportation to school; findings from the Healthy Communities Study

Mini-Oral Presentation C1.8

Authors

  • Matthew Stewart University of Michigan
  • Alisha Rajbhandari Battelle Memorial Institute
  • Ian-Marshall Lang University of Michigan
  • Stephanie Miller University of Michigan
  • Natalie Colabianchi University of Michigan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/hfjc.v14i3.747

Keywords:

Youth, Physical Activity, Active Transportation

Abstract

Background: Active transportation to school can be a valuable opportunity for youth to engage in physical activity. Purpose: To study the relationship between neighborhood safety and school programming with walking/biking to school. Methods: The sample includes 1,883 US youth aged 4-15 years who lived within 3km of their school. The relationship between perceptions of neighborhood safety (collected via questionnaires) and school programming data (collected via interviews with key informants) with self-reported walking/biking to school in the past week was tested using logistic regression. Results: Greater neighborhood safety was associated with increased walking/biking to school (β = 0.24, p = .033). Distance to school was negatively associated, and age and income, positively associated, with walking/biking to school (β = -1.36, p < .001; β = 0.21, p < .001; β = 0.43, p = .002). An interaction between neighborhood safety and school programming was marginally significant (p = .056). Conclusions: To increase walking/biking to school, communities should address neighborhood safety and school programming. Funding: This research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number R01HL137731. The original Healthy Communities Study, was funded by the NHLBI of NIH, in collaboration with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders, National Cancer Institute, and NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research; Department of Health and Human Services, under award number HHSN268201000041C.

Published

2021-09-30

How to Cite

Stewart, M., Rajbhandari, A., Lang, I.-M., Miller, S., & Colabianchi, N. (2021). Neighborhood safety, school programming, and active transportation to school; findings from the Healthy Communities Study: Mini-Oral Presentation C1.8. The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.14288/hfjc.v14i3.747