Prevalence of active transportation among adults in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review of population-based studies

Abstract

Objective. To describe the prevalence of “active” (self-propelled, human-powered) transportation in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region over the past decade. Methods. MEDLINE, Excerpta Medica (Embase), SportDiscus, Lilacs, MediCarib, Web of Science, OVID, CINAHL, Scopus, Google Scholar, National Transportation Library, and TRIS/TRID were searched for articles on active transportation published between January 2003 and December 2014 with (at least) a title and abstract in English, Portuguese, or Spanish. Research was included in the study if the two reviewing authors agreed it 1) was conducted in an adult sample (≥ 18 years old), 2) was designed to be representative of any LAC area, and 3) reported at least one measure of active transportation. Reference lists of included papers and retrieved reviews were also checked. A total of 129 key informants (87 scientific experts and 42 government authorities) were contacted to identify additional candidate publications. Two other authors extracted the data independently. Results. A total of 10 459 unique records were found; the full texts of 143 were reviewed; and a total of 45 studies were included in the study, yielding estimates for 72 LAC settings, most of which were in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. No eligible studies were found for the years 2003–2004, resulting in a 10-year study time frame. Estimates were available for walking, cycling, or the combination of both, with a high degree of heterogeneity (heterogeneity index (I2) ≥ 99%). The median prevalence of active transportation (combining walking and cycling) was 12.0%, ranging from 5.1% (in Palmas, Brazil) to 58.9% (in Rio Claro, Brazil). Men cycled more than women in all regions for which information was available. The opposite was true for walking. Conclusions. Prevalence of active transportation in LAC varied widely, with great heterogeneity and uneven distribution of studies across countries, indicating the need for efforts to build comprehensive surveillance systems with standardized, timely, and detailed estimates of active transportation in order to support policy planning and evaluation.

Influence of distance, area, and cultural context in active commuting: Continental and insular children

“…A variety of studies exist that have focused on analyzing the levels of active commuting to school among children and adolescents on a worldwide level [17–29]. These studies show a greater level of active commuting in adolescents than in children, being higher on the way to home from school, which agree with the results obtained in the present study.…”

“…In spite of these benefits, the frequency of active commuting to school has drastically decreased in the last thirty years in countries like the United States [11], United Kingdom [12], Canada [13], Australia [14], New Zealand [15], and Spain [16]. Previous data from South America point out that Mexican teenagers (10–14 years old) walked to school at a rate of 68%, and a 2% cycled to school [17], while Colombian children (10.5 ± 0.6 years old) and Brazilian children (10.5 ± 0.5 years old) showed active commuting rates (walking or by bike) of 71.5% and 40% respectively [18]. A lower rate of active commuting was found in Ecuador, where a 14.2% of children and a 20% of adolescents were active [19].…”

Walking for transportation in large Latin American cities: walking-only trips and total walking events and their sociodemographic correlates

“…Owing to the importance of walking for transportation, there is increased attention to understand current population levels of walking. This mirrors growth in studies exploring daily physical activity engagement among residents of Latin American cities (Salvo, Reis, Sarmiento, & Pratt, 2014Werneck et al, 2019), and especially those looking at walking as a source of physical activity (de Sá et al, 2017;Ferrari et al, 2020). Previous studies about walking activity in Latin American has generally relied on measures such as daily or weekly walking time or the proportion of individuals achieving the recommended PA guidelines from walking, which are obtained from standardised physical activity surveys such as IPAQ (Florindo et al, 2019;Hallal et al, 2010).…”

Is city-level travel time by car associated with individual obesity or diabetes in Latin American cities? Evidence from 178 cities in the SALURBAL project

“…One possible explanation for the unexpected results is that Latin American cities have generally remained dense and compact ( Inostroza et al, 2013 ) and with high street density. In turn, walking and public transportation as modes of transport have remained relatively high ( Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina, 2017 ; Delclòs-Alió et al,2021 ) and in many cities car restrictions could lead to multimodal transportation and active travel ( Rivas et al, 2019 ), thereby ensuring relevant levels physical activity through walking for transport ( de Sáet al, 2017 ; Ferrari et al, 2020 ; Lemoine et al, 2016 ) independently from long travel times at the city level. In addition, car ownership and use is strongly associated with higher SES in Latin America ( Ferrari et al, 2020 ; Gandelman et al, 2019 ), and at the same time individuals in higher SES groups are currently more likely to have healthier diets and engage in more leisure physical activity ( Gémez et al, 2019 ; Werneck et al, 2019 ), which could be compensating for sedentary time spent in cars.…”