Walking time to school, children's active school travel and their related factors

- Active school travel can facilitate physical activity among children.
- In the cases where cycling is unusual, walking time was the most important barrier for children's active school travel.
- We suggest 10 min walking time to school threshold as an active travel policy in Rasht, Iran.

Active school travel is one of the main opportunities for promotion of physical activity among children. Low physical activity in this group is associated with potential health risks. This research has three aims including two main aims and one intermediate aim. The two main aims were to identify variables that explain why the perceived walking time to school (PWTS) is below or above a threshold and to examine the role of PWTS as well as socioeconomic status, household factors, parental attitudes towards walking and walking safety on active school travel among children. The intermediate aim was to identify a threshold for the PWTS. This threshold may provide information about how to plan transport and roads around schools. Data were gathered in Rasht, Iran in 2014. The 1078 questionnaires were distributed among pupils aged 7-9 years in nine schools. The children were instructed to bring the forms to their parents who completed them (n=735, return rate=80%). To predict active school travel (0=inactive modes, 1=active modes), and PWTS (0=long, 1=short) two binary logistic regression analyses were carried out. Results showed that a 10 minutes PWTS was the threshold where the proportion of active mode use (walking) starts to decrease compared to the best performing alternative mode. Higher parental age (OR=1.02) and household income (OR=1.27), accessibility to public transport (OR=0.42), attending public school (OR=0.36), access to school service (OR=0.45) and contextual and design preconditions for walking (OR=0.81) were associated with PWTS to eligible schools. PWTS (OR=15.24) was a strong negative predictor of active school travel. Mother's driving license (OR=0.49), more owned cars (OR=0.53), higher mother's educational degree (OR=0.74), accessibility to public transport (OR=0.26), and access to school service (OR=0.22) were related to active school travel. This research found that PWTS is the most important barrier for children's active travelling while adjusting for a wide-range of demographics, socio-economic variables as well as safety and attitude factors in Iran.