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Sponsors and Collaborators: |
University of Washington Baylor College of Medicine Robert Wood Johnson Foundation |
Information provided by: | University of Washington |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00402701 |
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a walking school bus program can increase the number of children walking to school and decrease the number of children driven by car to school.
Condition | Intervention |
Obesity |
Behavioral: Walking School Bus Program |
MedlinePlus related topics: | Obesity Obesity in Children |
Study Type: | Interventional |
Study Design: | Other, Non-Randomized, Open Label, Active Control, Parallel Assignment, Efficacy Study |
Official Title: | Pedestrian Behavior Following Implementation of a Walking School Bus |
Enrollment: | 735 |
Study Start Date: | November 2004 |
Study Completion Date: | April 2006 |
Arms | Assigned Interventions |
1: Experimental
Students in school with active walk-to-school promotion programs.
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Behavioral: Walking School Bus Program
Schoolwide promotion of walk to school. Facilitation of parent-led walking school bus routes.
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2: No Intervention
Students in schools with access to standard school district transportation resources.
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Walking to school is associated with higher levels of physical activity, which is an objective of Healthy People 2010. However, parents' concerns about safety have been identified as a barrier that prevents their children from walking to school. A walking school bus (WSB) addresses these concerns by providing a supervised period of physical activity on the way to school. A WSB is a group of children led to and from school by responsible adults who walk together along a set route. The peer-reviewed literature on active travel to school is sparse. We evaluated a WSB program, to test the hypothesis that it would increase the proportion of children walking and decrease the proportion of children driven by car to school.
Comparison: We conducted an 18-month controlled, quasi-experimental trial at three public elementary schools in Seattle, Washington. The intervention school was assigned a WSB coordinator who dedicated 10-15 hours/week establishing WSB routes and implementing school activities on pedestrian safety. Each "bus" had its own set route to school from different locations in the surrounding neighborhoods and was staffed by several parent leaders. The two control schools received standard Seattle Public Schools resources on walking to school including "Safe Route Maps," a traffic and safety committee, and school safety patrols. The primary outcomes were the proportions of children who walked with and without an adult or were driven by car to school. We used the test for independent proportions to compare the proportion of children transported to school at the intervention versus control schools.
Genders Eligible for Study: | Both |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | Yes |
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
United States, Washington | |||||
Harborview Injury Prevention Research Center - University of Washington | |||||
Seattle, Washington, United States, 98104 |
University of Washington |
Baylor College of Medicine |
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation |
Principal Investigator: | Brian D Johnston, MD MPH | University of Washington |
Study ID Numbers: | 04-3850-E/A |
First Received: | November 21, 2006 |
Last Updated: | October 30, 2007 |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00402701 |
Health Authority: | United States: Institutional Review Board |
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