Active transport to school and health-enhancing physical activity: a rapid review of European evidence

ABSTRACT

Evidence suggests that children and adolescents fail to meet international physical activity recommendations and are at heightened risk of non-communicable conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. Active Transport is one of a set of school-based strategies proposed to help meet daily physical activity targets. Physically active ways of travelling to and from school have received growing support as a simple, accessible, and inexpensive population-level strategy that can be integrated into students’ routines. This study’s objective was to review evidence from across Europe of Active Transport ’s contribution to promoting health-enhancing physical activity. The approach involves examining two bodies of literature: the relationship between Active Transport and physical activity levels; and the effects of interventions to promote physical activity through Active Transport. A rapid review protocol gathered and analysed published academic evidence related to these topics. This is the first review to take a European focus, indicating that Active Transport interventions have produced mixed results. Nevertheless, well-designed interventions can significantly contribute to increasing children’s physical activity levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Active school
• active communities
• physical activity
• rapid review
• health

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Acknowledgments

We thank colleagues in the following organisations for their support: Université du Luxembourg, International Sport and Culture Association, Deporte para la Educacion y la Salud, Spain, European Physical Education Association, and Magyar Diaksport Szovetseg, Hungary. We are grateful for the invaluable comments feedback from Shamsiah Banu Mohamad Hanefar, Csaba Z Szabo, and Rob Bailey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was part of the ‘Healthy and Physically Active Schools in Europe’ (HEPAS) project, funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme [No. 2019-1-LU01-KA201-050112].

Notes on contributors

Richard Peter Bailey

The HEPAS (Healthy and Physically Active Schools in Europe) project research group brings together researchers from across Europe, having developed the HEPAS-concept of an ‘Active School’, where physical activity is embedded into different aspects of school life, including Active Transport to and from school. Before developing guidance and materials to support Active Transport, a review of the published research from Europe was undertaken by the research group, as part of a report presenting a series of reviews of the scientific literature to summarise the current evidence of the contributions of different school-based settings on the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity.