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Evaluation of a Walking School Bus Program

NCT01626807 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 838

Last updated 2017-04-25

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

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.

Conditions

Interventions

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Seattle Children's Hospital

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Jason A Mendoza, MD, MPH · Seattle Children's Hospital

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
7 Years
Max Age
14 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-12-31
Primary Completion
2016-08-31
Completion
2016-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01626807 on ClinicalTrials.gov