Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program

Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Just two generations ago, walking or bicycling to school was the norm for a substantial number of US children, e.g. 48% of children walked or biked to school in 1969 versus only 13% in 2009. This decline occurred in the same timeframe as the childhood obesity epidemic, which is at record high levels in the US and affects low-income and ethnic minority children the most. This project will test "the walking school bus" (WSB) program, in which children walk to and from school with adults, and its impact on low-income, ethnic minority children's walking to school, physical activity, and risk for obesity. Ultimately, this line of research has the potential to provide a low-cost, easy to disseminate program to reduce risk of obesity and cancer for at-risk children.

The investigators Specific Aims among 3rd-5th grade children include:

SA1) To recruit 770 child-parent dyads from 22 elementary schools over 4 years and conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of a WSB program on children's walking to school, physical activity, and BMI z-score over a school-year SA2) To collect and analyze data on individual-, school-, and macro-level influences on changes to children's walking to school resulting from the WSB program

The Primary Hypotheses to be tested, in comparison to control children, include:

H1) The WSB program will increase children's walking to school over a school-year.

H1a) Parents' outcome expectations and self-efficacy will mediate the relationship between the WSB and changes to children's walking to school.

H1b) Walkability, safety, and acculturation will moderate changes to children's walking to school.

H2) The WSB program will increase children's physical activity and decrease BMI z-scores over a school-year.

H3) The WSB program will increase school-level pedestrian safety behaviors over a school-year.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Physical Activity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Walking School Bus

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 838
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98145-5005
      • Seattle Children's Research Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 7 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• physically capable of walking to and from school
• live within 1-mile of school or parents agree to regularly drop off children within 1-mile of school
• attend a study school and enrolled in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade

Exclusion Criteria:

• another child from the same household is enrolled in the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Usual care
Experimental: Walking school bus	Behavioral: Walking School Bus; Children will have the option of walking to and/or from school with study staff who are trained in Safe Routes to School methods.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Weekly rate of children's active commuting to school	5-6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity	5-6 months
Body mass index z-score	5-6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Seattle Children's Hospital
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jason A Mendoza, MD, MPH, Seattle Children's Research Institute

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Walking School Bus Guidelines

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 21, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 22, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): June 25, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 25, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2017
• Last Verified: April 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physical Activity; Obesity; Overweight; Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial; Walking School Bus; Safe Routes to School
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R01CA163146-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)