Pilot Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

Official Title
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Pilot and Feasibility Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program Intervention for Elementary School Students

Conditions
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Obesity, Physical Activity, Pedestrian Safety, Injury Prevention

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Walking School Bus


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 8 Years
Maximum Age: 12 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: I<br>Walking School Bus Intervention | Behavioral: Walking School Bus<br>* Students are chaperoned to and from school by adults (study staff or parent volunteers) along set routes.<br>* Other names: Safe Routes to School;|
| No Intervention: C<br>Usual school procedures for student transportation to school | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Method of student transportation to school |  | Immediately pre- and post-intervention | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Physical activity | Physical activity objectively measured by accelerometers. | Immediately pre- and post-intervention | 
| 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 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Obesity, Physical activity, Injury Prevention, Pedestrian safety, Self efficacy, School, Walking School Bus, Safe Routes to School