Associations among individual, social, and environmental barriers and children's walking or cycling to school.

PURPOSE

To examine associations among individual, social, and environmental barriers and children's walking or cycling to school.

DESIGN

Exploratory cross-sectional study.

SETTING

All eight capital cities in Australia. SUBJECTS. Parents (N=720) of school-aged children (4-13 years; 27% response rate; 49% parents of boys).

MEASURES

Multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for parental reporting of barriers to their children's walking or cycling to school, based on a computer-assisted telephone interview.

RESULTS

Forty-one percent of children walked or cycled to school at least once per week. Multivariable analyses found inverse associations with individual ("child prefers to be driven" [OR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.3-0.6], "no time in the mornings" [OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3-0.8]); social ("worry child will take risks" [OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.3-0.9], "no other children to walk with" [OR = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.4-0.99], "no adults to walk with" [OR = 0.6, 95% CI = 0.4-0.9]); and environmental barriers ("too far to walk" [OR = 0.1, 95% CI = 0.0-0.1], "no direct route" [OR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.2-0.7]) and positive associations with "concern child may be injured in a road accident" (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1-3.1) and active commuting.

CONCLUSION

Working with parents, schools, and local authorities to improve pedestrian skills and environments may help to overcome barriers.