As childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions, it is critical to devise interventions that target the root causes of obesity and its risk factors. 

Neighborhood walkability can influence physical activity. This study evaluated the validity of Walk Score for assessing neighborhood walkability based on GIS (objective) indicators of neighborhood walkability with addresses from four US metropolitan areas with several street network buffer distances (i.e., 400-, 800-, and 1,600-meters).

Walking to school is an important source of physical activity among children. There is a paucity of research exploring environmental determinants of walking to school among children in urban areas.

This study evaluated the growing literature on the built environment and physical activity and obesity by conducting a review of review papers. They analyzed research gaps and areas of improvement identified by previous reviews and propose a research agenda.

This study assesses the reliability and validity of the U.S. National Center for Safe Routes to School’s in-class student travel tallies and written parent surveys. Over 65,000 tallies and 374,000 parent surveys have been completed, but no published studies have examined their measurement properties.

A growing number of studies have examined correlates of walking-to/from-school behaviors. However, the potential differences across neighborhoods have been understudied.

This webinar addresses common issues that schools face, presents information on common solutions and highlights communities that have creatively faced this issue and as a result have more students bicycling to school daily.

This document is a short informational document, demonstrating the benefits of joint use gardens and also discusses the benefits of joint use partnerships.

This video serves as a training tool for communities to establish joint use agreements brought to you by California Prjoect Lean, The California Department of Public Health and the California School Board Association.

This article examines the role smart growth can play in achieving planning objectives, including energy conservation and emission reductions. It summarizes existing literature on land use impacts on travel activity, energy consumption and pollution emissions. It examines claims that smart growth policies are ineffective and harmful.

Automobile exhaust pose health risks and dependency on car commuting also reduces physical fitness opportunities.

Studies have reported high exposure to air pollutants at school, but only a handful of studies have analysed children’s exposure at school.

Vehicular emissions in close proximity to schools can have detrimental health effects on children. The Safe Routes to School program claims to improve air quality through implementation due to reduced volume of traffic generated to schools.

This study is the first bi-national investigation characterizing traffic air pollutants at four schools in El Paso, USA and Cd. Juarez, Mexico. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

• Comprehensive physical activity programs in school settings can affect physical activity, health, and academic performance.

Surveys were used to collect self-reported data on time spent in PA and SB along with direct measurements of BMI and waist circumference from non-Hispanic white (312 males, 301 females) and Hispanic (671 males, 610 females) adolescents (13–17 years old).

This paper investigates gender differences in the associations between adolescent mode choices and travel patterns for the trip to school and levels of physical activity.

The purpose of this paper is to review intervention studies related to active school transportation to guide future intervention research. A systematic review was conducted to identify intervention studies of active transportation to school published in the scientific literature through January 2010. 

The objective of this study is to identify the sociodemographic predictors of active transportation to schools across time among school-aged children participating in the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY).

Physical activity is associated with better health. Two sources of activity for children are walking to school and taking part in organized sports and activities. This study uses a large national cohort to examine factors associated with participation in these activities.