Increasing Non-Motorized Travel to School

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Overweight and sedentary behaviors among children have increased significantly over the past 20 years. Efforts to increase children's physical activity levels have been only moderately successful. This proposal describes a pilot study designed to acquire necessary preliminary data and experience to develop an intervention protocol for a full-scale trial. This pilot study will compare the feasibility of two approaches to increasing children's travel to school by non-motorized travel (NMT): a school-wide behavioral/educational model using the Walk to School campaign versus the use of the Walk to School campaign while concurrently organizing a school-community coalition to facilitate environmental change (EI). Primary Aims are: (1) To observe the effects of a behavioral/educational intervention (WTSI) on the non-motorized (NM) trips to/from school by 5th grade students, and (2) To observe the effects of a behavioral/educational intervention plus a school-community coalition that will focus on creating environmental interventions (EI) to increase NM trips to/from school. The study will use participatory action research approaches, executed by an experienced multi-disciplinary team. Two schools will be recruited from counties participating in the Cardiovascular Health Program, a cooperative venture between the NC Department of Health and local health departments to effect physical activity and nutrition policy and environment changes. Schools will be matched on size, % non-bus eligible, building age, % minority students, and % subsidized nutrition program. The primary outcome of this study is non-motorized trip "counts" to/from school (as measured by the Previous Day Physical Activity Recall), with secondary outcomes of increased total physical activity (accelerometers) and, ultimately, decreased levels of overweight among program participants. An additional secondary aim is to assess the role of psychosocial, behavioral and environmental determinants of NMT to school obtained from children and parents. A cross-sectional design will measure successive groups of 5th graders at baseline, 1- year and 2- year time points. If results suggest that it is feasible to increase NMT in these pilot schools, we will use these results to develop a full-scale proposal on increasing children's active travel to school.