Table 3.
Association between school neighborhood built environment characteristics and active travel to school (ATS)
| School neighborhood built environment characteristics | Active Travelersan=388 | Not Active Travelers n= 347 | Model Ib | Model IIbc | Model IIIbcd | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | SD | M | SD | OR (95% CI)e | OR (95% CI)e | OR (95% CI)e | |
| Residential housing densityf | 1,367.35 | 1,142.83 | 882.98 | 749.49 | 1.84 (1.46, 2.30)*** | 1.63 (1.18, 2.25)** | 1.58 (1.14, 2.20)** |
| Intersection density | 91.02 | 53.37 | 71.57 | 41.42 | 1.01 (1.01, 1.02)*** | 1.01 (1.00, 1.01) | |
| Nonresidential land use | 0.71 | 0.24 | 0.68 | 0.23 | 1.52 (0.40, 5.81) | ||
| Number of food outlets | 17.30 | 19.64 | 11.16 | 12.97 | 1.10 (1.01, 1.05)** | 1.01 (0.99, 1.02) | |
| Street width in front of school | 34.59 | 12.48 | 32.75 | 11.36 | 1.01 (0.99, 1.04) | ||
| Number of lanes in front of school | 2.58 | 4.08 | 2.48 | 3.53 | 1.01 (0.95, 1.07) | ||
| Sidewalks | 1.26 | 0.62 | 0.90 | 0.73 | 2.27 (1.61, 3.20)*** | 1.61 (1.10, 2.36)* | 1.63 (1.11, 2.38)* |
| Curbs | 1.21 | 0.67 | 0.90 | 0.76 | 1.96 (1.34, 2.86)*** | 1.49 (0.97, 2.29) | |
| Green strip | 0.36 | 0.29 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 2.46 (0.92, 6.61) | ||
| Trees | 0.10 | 0.16 | 0.13 | 0.16 | 0.14 (0.02, 0.94)* | 0.82 (0.14, 4.90) | |
| Low gradient | 1.70 | 0.25 | 1.66 | 0.30 | 2.07 (0.75, 5.71) | ||
| On street parking | 0.55 | 0.49 | 0.37 | 0.44 | 2.56 (1.40, 4.70)** | 1.52 (0.85, 2.70) | |
| Low site parking | 0.84 | 0.21 | 0.84 | 0.19 | 1.10 (0.25, 4.86) | ||
| Small setbacks | 0.23 | 0.21 | 0.15 | 0.20 | 8.21 (2.29, 29.40)** | 2.88 (0.91, 9.16) | |
| Building continuity | 0.69 | 0.30 | 0.56 | 0.31 | 4.69 (2.08, 10.56)*** | 2.92 (1.35, 6.32)** | 3.01 (1.37, 6.59)** |
| Building height | 0.16 | 0.21 | 0.10 | 0.17 | 9.77 (2.24, 42.72)*** | 2.75 (0.60, 12.48) | |
Active travelers are defined as those who walked/biked to or from school at least 1 day per week for one or more seasons.
Each built environment characteristic (BEC) was modeled separately using SAS GLIMMIX Type III Test for Fixed Effects. Only BECs significantly associated with ATS were carried forward to the next model. Models I were unadjusted; Models II were adjusted for school-level covariates (distance to school and school town size); Models III were adjusted for school-level and individual/family covariates (child gender, grade, household income, single-parent household).
Distance to school was inversely associated with ATS at p<0.001 in all models; School town size was not significant in any of the models.
Boys were more likely to be active travelers than girls (p<0.05) in all models; household income, single-parent household and grade in school were not significant.
p<0.05;
p<0.01;
p<0.001
Residential density was logged in model analysis to tighten an overly wide distribution, but the actual M and SD are reported.