Pilot Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program

NCT00758615 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 1R21CA133418-01163773
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 149
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Walking to school is one of the objectives for children and adolescents in Healthy People 2010 and in previous studies was associated with higher levels of overall physical activity, which has been shown to decrease obesity. Therefore, more children walking to school should result in increased physical activity and presumably reduce obesity. However, increasing child pedestrian activity could increase the risk of child pedestrian injuries. Walking with an adult who provides instruction in pedestrian skills and monitors the child's actual behavior may be the most important component of a successful intervention. Walking with an adult reduced child pedestrian injury risk by almost 70%. A walking school bus (WSB) addresses safety concerns by providing a period of physical activity supervised by several responsible adults and teaching opportunities around pedestrian safety skills on the way to and from school. Children may join the WSB at various points along the set route. Despite the growing popularity of WSB programs in the United States, randomized, controlled-studies are lacking that examine the impact on children's safety, physical activity, and health. We seek to help fill this gap in the literature by piloting a WSB program in elementary schools in the Houston Independent School District to test feasibility. We hypothesize that a WSB program will: (1) increase the number of students walking to school and decrease the number of students driven to school by car, (2) increase students' pedestrian safety behaviors (3) increase students' physical activity, and (4) decrease students' excess weight gain.

Conditions

Obesity; Physical Activity; Pedestrian Safety; Injury Prevention

Keywords

Obesity; Physical activity; Injury Prevention; Pedestrian safety; Self efficacy; School; Walking School Bus; Safe Routes to School

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Method of student transportation to school

  Immediately pre- and post-intervention

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Physical activity

  Immediately pre- and post-intervention

• Pedestrian crosswalk behavior

  Immediately pre- and post-intervention

• Parents' psychosocial constructs related to allowing their child to walk to school

  Immediately pre- and post-intervention

• Child's self-efficacy for walking to school

  Immediately pre- and post-intervention

Study Arms (2)

I

EXPERIMENTAL

Walking School Bus Intervention

Behavioral: Walking School Bus

C

NO INTERVENTION

Usual school procedures for student transportation to school

Interventions

Walking School Bus BEHAVIORAL

Students are chaperoned to and from school by adults (study staff or parent volunteers) along set routes.

Also known as: Safe Routes to School

I

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 8 Years - 12 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• th grade student at a study school in the Houston Independent School District
• Must be physically able to walk to and from school

You may not qualify if:

• Any condition that would prevent the student from walking to or from school

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Seattle Children's Hospital: lead

Study Sites (1)

Baylor College of Medicine

Houston, Texas, 77030, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Mendoza JA, Watson K, Baranowski T, Nicklas TA, Uscanga DK, Hanfling MJ. The walking school bus and children's physical activity: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 2011 Sep;128(3):e537-44. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-3486. Epub 2011 Aug 22.

  PMID: 21859920 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Obesity; Motor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior

Study Officials

• Jason A Mendoza, MD, MPH

  Seattle Children's Hospital

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 22, 2008
• First Posted: September 25, 2008
• Study Start: September 1, 2008
• Primary Completion: June 1, 2009
• Study Completion: June 1, 2009
• Last Updated: December 6, 2013

Record last verified: 2013-12

Locations

US (1)