Pilot Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Obesity; Physical Activity; Pedestrian Safety; Injury Prevention
• Interventions: Behavioral: Walking School Bus

• Registration Number: NCT00758615
• Lead Sponsor: Seattle Children's Hospital

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2008-09
• Study First Submitted: 2008-09-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2008-09-23
• Study First Posted: 2008-09-25
• Primary Completion: 2009-06
• Study Completion: 2009-06
• Status Verified: 2013-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-12-04
• Last Update Posted: 2013-12-06

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 149

Inclusion Criteria

• 4th grade student at a study school in the Houston Independent School District
• Must be physically able to walk to and from school

Exclusion Criteria

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
I	Walking School Bus	Walking School Bus Intervention

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Method of student transportation to school	Immediately pre- and post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Physical activity	Immediately pre- and post-intervention	Physical activity objectively measured by accelerometers.
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

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Baylor College of Medicine; 🇺🇸 Houston, Texas, United States