Walking to, from school good for teen health

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Teenagers who walk to and from school may get more exercise throughout the day—including during school hours—than those who travel to and from school by car, bus or train, a team of Scottish researchers reports.

“We are unlikely to be ‘helping’ people by chauffeuring them everywhere they need to go,” said study author Dr. Leslie M. Alexander, of Edinburgh University. “Moderate and vigorous physical activities are good for us—walking to and from school contributes to this,” the researcher added.

Previous researchers found that walking to school affects overall physical activity among 10-year-old children also, but adolescents are known to be less active than their younger peers.

To determine the impact of walking to school among adolescents, Alexander and co-authors fitted students aged 13 to 14 years with accelerometers to measure activity. They were asked to wear the accelerometers on their hip at all times, from waking until bedtime, unless showering or participating in some other water-based activity.

At the end of the up to 10-day study period, students who walked to and from school were the most physically active overall, the researchers report in the online edition of the British Medical Journal.

These teenagers all spent about an hour or more participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity on weekdays. The same was true of 90 percent of those who walked one way and 87 percent of those who traveled by car, bus or train, findings show.

“So given that we were able to examine data minute by minute, what we found was that even when we looked at specific times during the day (which did not include travel times to and from school), young people who walked both ways to school were more active during these times,” Alexander told.

Specifically, students who walked both ways also accumulated 52 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity while at school, slightly more than the 50 minutes accumulated by those who walked one way. Those who traveled by car, bus or train, however, accumulated only 43 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity during school hours.

The researchers did not investigate the reasons for the increased level of physical activity among those who walked to and from school, but they speculate that “walking in the morning may stimulate further activity and social facilitation.”

And, Alexander added, “there are likely to be other benefits from walking, such as opportunities to explore one’s environment, be alone or socialize, a chance to unwind or have a think, and the health-related risks from traffic would be far less if more people walked or cycled.”

Based on the findings, Alexander advises: “Trust your legs if you can and take time to walk to school or work. Even walking one way will boost the amount of activity you get during the day.”

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, online August 17, 2005.

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