Evaluating the effects of active morning commutes on students' overall daily walking activity in Singapore: Do walkers walk more?

Students who walked or took public transport walked more than their driven peers during morning commuting hours, by 96.1 steps per hour (95% CI = 71.5, 120.8) and 54.1 steps per hour (95% CI = 32.2, 75.9) respectively. Students who switched morning commute modes from car to public transport took 47.6 more morning steps per hour (95% CI = 10.3, 84.9) when using public transport, compared to when driven. However, the relationship between morning travel modes and step count per hour across the full day was less clear-cut. Both our 'between students' and 'within students' analyses suggest that taking more active morning modes, after controlling for all possible confounders and modifers, was not associated with higher step counts over the entire day. Encouraging students to walk more through more active morning commutes alone may have limited effectiveness in increasing overall daily walking activity.