Contribution of active commuting to and from school to device‐measured physical activity levels in young people: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

ObjectiveTo analyze the contribution of active commuting to and from school (ACS) to device‐measured light physical activity (LPA) and moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels in young people aged 6 to 18 years old, as well as, in both trip directions (i.e., home‐school, school‐home).MethodsThis systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA statement, and five different databases were used for the systematic search (PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTdiscuss, Cochrane Library, and National Transportation Library) using PECO strategy.ResultsA total of 14 studies met all the eligibility criteria, which compile 7127 participants. The overall ACS weighted LPA was 19.55 min (95% CI: 3.84‐35.26; I2 = 99.9%, p < 0.001) and 68.74 min (95% CI: 6.09‐131.39; z = 2.15, p = 0.030) during the home‐school and school‐home trips, respectively. For MVPA, the overall ACS weighted MVPA was 8.98 min (95% CI: 5.33–12.62; I2 = 99.95%, p < 0.001) during the home‐school trip and 20.07 min (95% CI: 13.62‐26.53; I2 = 99.62%, p < 0.001) during the school‐home trip.ConclusionACS may contribute about 48% of the PA recommendations in young people on school days if both trip directions are actively performed. Therefore, future studies aimed at increasing daily PA levels in young population should focus on promoting students' ACS.PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020162004A.

Umbrella review of international evidence for the effectiveness of school-based physical activity interventions

“…Three reviews [ 29 , 32 , 34 ] investigated interventions concerning “active school transport” and “active commuting to and from school”. In reviews of [ 29 , 34 ], accelerometers were used to measure PA in all included studies.…”

“…Three reviews [ 29 , 32 , 34 ] investigated interventions concerning “active school transport” and “active commuting to and from school”. In reviews of [ 29 , 34 ], accelerometers were used to measure PA in all included studies. Larouche et al reported that 13 interventions resulted in a statistically significant increase in active school transport whereas eight reported no changes at all, four included studies recorded inconsistent results and five did not record inferential statistics.…”

“…It should be noted that most of the included studies in the reviews of [ 29 , 32 ] were rated as poor quality and had severe limitations in the design and implementation of interventions, therefore, they attributed a low grade for the overall quality of evidence. For the review conducted by [ 34 ] most studies had a low risk of bias and medium quality.…”

“…Eight out of the twenty-three reviews conducted a meta-analysis. Four of these studies used partially appropriate methods for the statistical combination of results and assessed the potential impact of the risk of bias in the included studies on the results and evidence synthesis [ 19 , 22 , 34 , 36 ]. The findings of the quality assessment are presented in S4 Appendix in S1 File ).…”

Are school uniforms associated with gender inequalities in physical activity? A pooled analysis of population-level data from 135 countries/regions

“… 17 Whole-day school uniforms, for which items are often also segregated by gender, could similarly influence students’ physical activity behavior. These uniforms are typically worn for longer periods than PE attire and during times when young people accrue a greater portion of their daily physical activity (e.g., during recess, 33 school travel 34 , 35 ). Observational research studies have found that some girls perceive their whole-day uniforms as a barrier to break-time play 36 , 37 and school active travel.…”