Grant: Operating Grant: Population Health Intervention Research

Over 90% of Canadian youth do not accumulate the recommended minimum amount of daily physical activity (PA) and low levels of PA among youth have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Promoting PA is an important public health strategy, and while active transportation to/from school (ATS) could be an important way to increase PA, currently only one in four children walks to school, compared to more than one half just a generation ago. School Travel Planning (STP) is a comprehensive process that promotes young students and their families to use ATS instead of inactive modes of commuting by eliminating the barriers for children to safely walk or cycle to school. Past research on STP comes from large urban and suburban areas, and while it shows promise for improving PA levels, there is lack of evidence of its effect in smaller rural and northern communities. The objective of our research is to assess the implementation and impact of a STP intervention in participating elementary schools in the North Bay Parry Sound District on ATS and PA in children in a small-medium sized population center in a northern context. Our secondary objective is to assess the impact of the STP intervention on mental health indicators of children engaging in ATS. We will use a variety of methods, including observations, interviews, surveys, and objective measures of PA (i.e. accelerometers and global positioning systems) to: (1) explore facilitators and barriers to ATS among students; (2) evaluate the impact of the STP intervention; (3) measure and track changes in PA and active travel behaviours; and (4) evaluate the influence of ATS on mental health indicators among students (junior kindergarten to grade 8). This natural experiment represents a valuable opportunity for increasing daily PA levels and improving health outcomes in children at a population level through ATS while yielding important findings on the ATS behaviours in small to medium population settings.