Assessment of direct and indirect associations between children active school travel and environmental, household and child factors using structural equation modelling.

BACKGROUND: Active school travel (AST) is influenced by multiple factors including built and social environments, households and individual variables. A holistic theory such as Mitra's Behavioural Model of School Transportation (BMST) is vital to comprehensively understand these complex interrelationships. This study aimed to assess direct and indirect associations between children's AST and environmental, household and child factors based on the BMST using structural equation modelling (SEM). METHODS: Data were drawn from Neighbourhoods for Active Kids (NfAK), a cross-sectional study of 1102 children aged 8-13 years (school years 5-8) and their parents from nine intermediate and 10 primary schools in Auckland, New Zealand between February 2015 and December 2016. Data were collected using an online participatory mapping survey (softGIS) with children, a computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey (CATI) with parents, and ArcGIS for built environment attributes. Based on the BMST a conceptual model of children's school travel behaviour was specified for SEM analyses ('hypothesised SEM'), and model modification was made to improve the model ('modified SEM'). SEM analyses using Mplus were performed to test the hypothesised/modified SEM and to assess direct and indirect relationships among variables. RESULTS: The overall fit of the modified SEM was acceptable (N = 542; Root mean square error of approximation = 0.04, Comparative fit index = 0.94, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.92). AST was positively associated with child independent mobility, child-perceived neighbourhood safety, and parent-perceived importance of social interaction and neighbourhood social environment. Distance to school, and parental perceptions of convenience and concerns about traffic safety were negatively associated with AST. Parental fears of stranger danger were indirectly related to AST through those of traffic safety. Distance to school and child independent mobility mediated relationships between AST and child school year and sex. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing children's AST requires action on multiple fronts including communities that support independent mobility by providing child friendly social and built environments, safety from traffic, and policies that promote local schools and safe vehicle-free zones around school

Associations of neighborhood built, safety, and social environment with walking to and from school among elementary school-aged children in Chiba, Japan.

Funder: Obayashi FoundationBACKGROUND: Although it is globally known that Japan has high prevalence of active school travel among children, there are few international studies on Japanese children's school travel. Moreover, only few studies have focused on the differences in their mode of travel between to-school and from-school. This study examined the associations of neighborhood built, safety, and social environments with walking to/from school among elementary school-aged children in Chiba, Japan. METHODS: We conducted an online survey with 1545 parents of children aged 6-12 years residing in Chiba between 25 and 27 November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A neighborhood was defined as the area of a postcode provided by the participants. Each neighborhood environment was assessed based on the built environment (new town designation, walkability, distance to school, population density), social environment (neighborhood cohesion and connection), and safety (CCTVs, a road section for walking alone, safety volunteers). Neighborhood walkability was measured using subscales of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (youth and abbreviated versions) including crime safety and traffic safety. Parents' perceived influence of COVID-19 on school commuting and after-school activities were also included in the model as covariates. Walking to and from school were separately analyzed using multinomial logistic regressions, where new towns and walkability were computed separately as explanatory variables. RESULTS: Four fifths of children walked to and from school daily. Walking to school was positively associated with crime safety, neighborhood connections, and schools sited in new towns. Walking from school had positive associations with traffic safety, neighborhood cohesion, and CCTVs, but negative associations with safety volunteers and after-school activities. The presence of a section for walking alone and perceived influence of COVID-19 had negative associations with walking to and from school. CONCLUSIONS: Recent social changes such as declining birthrate, decline in public elementary schools, and increasing after-school activities may change parental attitudes toward children's walking to/from school, and subsequently, their mode of school travel over time. To maintain the high prevalence of walking to/from school in Japan, multidisciplinary approaches involving different stakeholders from education, public health, and urban planning are required to overcome sectionalism and support this behavior in the long term

Quality of life and self-report in children and adolescents with cognitive disability

The purpose of this research was to initiate the development of a tool that could be used by children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or mild intellectual disability (MID) to communicate perspectives of their quality of life (QOL). This research gathered direct verbal responses and opinions from parents and children and adolescents with ASDs or MID to assess the content validity of QOL instrument, Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM (PedsQL) Child Self-Report. The PedsQL questionnaire is designed to measure QOL in children and adolescents based on multidimensional domains of physical, emotional, social and school functioning. This research was qualitative descriptive and consisted of Phase one and two. By using sample of convenience and purposive sampling techniques, participants were recruited from a special school, a school with a special unit in Auckland region and via two private service providers, the Centre for Autism and Related Disorders and the Wilson Home Trust in each phase. Focus groups and individual interviews in Phase one and the interviews in Phase two were employed to obtain the participants’ perspectives and feedback on the appropriateness of the PedsQL questionnaire. The questionnaire was presented in both phases, and completed by the children and adolescents in Phase two. Thematic and content analyses were conducted in both phases to discover key themes and categories. The findings showed that the PedsQL questionnaire was inappropriate for children and adolescents with ASDs or MID in terms of: (1) a number of missing and irrelevant questions on social domain, (2) use of abstract concepts and words, and (3) monotonous formatting, response scales and presentation style. Cognitive and language ability and disease-specific symptoms such as impaired social relationships strongly influenced the comprehension and appraisal of the questionnaire. The modification of the PedsQL questionnaire was undertaken after Phase one including use of concrete wording, visuals, facial expressions and one-by-one presentation style, which assisted the children’s and adolescents’ understanding of and engagement with the questionnaire in Phase two. Thus, the development of the PedsQL questionnaire for children and adolescents with ASDs or MID may enhance the accuracy of their self-rating and obtain their unique perception of QOL. Based on this research, future research will explore further modification of the PedsQL questionnaire for use in children and adolescents with ASDs or MID as well as the use of different modes of administration such as qualitative interviews and electronic devices

ISBS 2018 AUCKLAND CONFERENCE SKY TOWER AND CITY HARBOUR WALKING TOUR PROGRAMME

This is the Sky tower and city harbour walking tour programme. You will be guided to walk from AUT, through the Aotea Centre to see the town hall and the plaza large Maori archway. A few hundred metres to St Patrick’s cathedral and then to the Sky tower where you will ascend to the viewing platform levels. The Sky Tower stands at 328 meters and is New Zealand’s tallest man-made structure and the tallest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere. The building serves as a telecommunications tower and is part of SKYCITY Auckland, a complex which includes a casino and hotel as well as the observation deck. Visitors go to the top of the building in glass-fronted elevators and there they can take in the views from three viewing platforms. From the top you have views for 80km in every direction. On Level 60 (Sky Deck) sections of the main observation level floor are transparent and you can see right down to the ground 186 meters below. The upper Skydeck is just below the main antenna at 220 meters high. If you want to spend more time at the top of Sky Tower then you can dine at Peter Gordon’s The Sugar Club restaurant or have a light meal at the Sky Café or Orbit, the city’s only revolving restaurant. Thrill seekers can try the SkyJump, leaping off the building (while attached to a safety harness) or the SkyWalk, walking around on the outside of the building on a 1.2 meter wide platform 192 meters from the ground. Sometimes the tower is lit up with colours to honour a special event, national holiday, and charity or community initiatives. After the Sky tower visit, you will walk down Queens Street past the N to Z shop to Britomart station. You will then carry on to the water front and follow the water to the left. Queen Street Wharf is where the Maori tribes came in, some of the best navigators in the world. If you continue along the waterfront, you will get to the ferry terminal, from here there are ferries to many of the Hauraki Gulf Islands. There are 50 volcanoes in Auckland, some of which make up the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. The Auckland Ferry Building was originally completed in 1912. If you walk down the pier, you will get to Shed 10, which is the first place Maori started to export from. From here you will carry on along the waterfront until you get to the viaduct basin. Here there are lots of nice restaurants, as well as berths for up to 150 boats. These include America’s Cup yachts which you can book a sailing experience on. We will then continue, over the Wynyard Crossing, from which you can look back at the Viaduct Basin, to Wynyard Quarter, past the fish markets, to Silo Park. Here you can either hang out in the park, find a nice place to eat, or check out the current art exhibition “Into the Underworld”

Keeping kids safe for active travel to school: A mixed method examination of school policies and practices and children's school travel behaviour.

Active school travel contributes to children's physical, mental and social wellbeing. The prevalence of children's active school travel, however, has been declining in many developed countries. Gaining insights into school culture and environments in relation to school travel behaviour is crucial to inform interventions. Using a multiphase mixed methods approach, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of how school policies and practices supported or inhibited school travel behaviour in Auckland, New Zealand. Data were drawn from Neighbourhoods for Active Kids, a cross-sectional study of 1085 children aged 8-13 years between February 2015 and December 2016. School representatives were interviewed regarding their policies and practices related to school travel behaviour and traffic around school, and the data were analysed thematically. An overarching theme, sub-themes and categories were contextualised for quantitative modelling using objectively measured school variables (school socioeconomic status, active school travel programme, built environments around school). Mixed effects multinomial logistic regression models were employed to determine associations between school travel mode and objectively measured child (sociodemographic characteristics, traffic safety perceptions) and school variables. Safety was the core concept of school travel policies, procedures and programmes. Significant differences in child variables, school socioeconomic status, and cycle lanes and traffic lights around school were found between children who actively travelled or used public transport to school and those driven to school. Overall, this study demonstrated the important role of school policy and procedures and the potential application of an intersectoral approach for interventions to support changes in school travel behaviour.This work was supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand [grant number 14/436]; and the Medical Research Council [MC_UU_12015/7]. The work was undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence which was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust. Melody Smith was supported by a Health Research Council of New Zealand Sir Charles Hercus Research Fellowship [17/013]. Suzanne Mavoa was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship [No. 1121035]

Urban green space and mental well-being of Aotearoa New Zealand adolescents : A path analysis

Background Growing evidence shows the positive influence of neighbourhood green space on mental well-being among adults through multiple health behaviours, but similar studies are lacking for adolescents. Methods Data were drawn from the 2019 wave of the Youth2000 survey series in Aotearoa, New Zealand with secondary school students (aged 10-19 years) from the city of Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland. Emotional well-being was measured with the World Health Organization-5 Well-being Index, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale-short form. Neighbourhood green space was assessed using three different measures: percentage of green space, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the distance to nearest green space from place of residence. Exposure areas of these measures were calculated using Euclidean buffers of 100m, 300m, 800m and 1600m around participants’ meshblock residential addresses. Three mediating (physical activity, social cohesion, sleep) and ten control variables (in adjusted models) were included in path analysis to test the direct and indirect relationships between green space and adolescent mental well-being. Results In unadjusted models, percentage of green space had a negative relationship with emotional well-being, and inconsistent effects of NDVI were detected in different buffers. Minor indirect effects of physical activity and sleep were also found. Depressive symptoms and emotional well-being were more strongly related to other individual and neighbourhood factors (e.g., neighbourhood deprivation). After adjusting for control variables, no significant associations of green space with adolescent depressive symptoms and emotional well-being were identified. Conclusions Urban neighbourhood green space does not appear to be a dominant factor contributing to adolescent mental well-being through physical activity, social cohesion and sleep. Appropriate individual and environmental control variables are needed to take into consideration in future studies that explore the green space-mental well-being relationships in adolescents

Visualising Combined Time Use Patterns of Children's Activities and Their Association with Weight Status and Neighbourhood Context.

Compositional data techniques are an emerging method in physical activity research. These techniques account for the complexities of, and interrelationships between, behaviours that occur throughout a day (e.g., physical activity, sitting, and sleep). The field of health geography research is also developing rapidly. Novel spatial techniques and data visualisation approaches are increasingly being recognised for their utility in understanding health from a socio-ecological perspective. Linking compositional data approaches with geospatial datasets can yield insights into the role of environments in promoting or hindering the health implications of the daily time-use composition of behaviours. The 7-day behaviour data used in this study were derived from accelerometer data for 882 Auckland school children and linked to weight status and neighbourhood deprivation. We developed novel geospatial visualisation techniques to explore activity composition over a day and generated new insights into links between environments and child health behaviours and outcomes. Visualisation strategies that integrate compositional activities, time of day, weight status, and neighbourhood deprivation information were devised. They include a ringmap overview, small-multiple ringmaps, and individual and aggregated time⁻activity diagrams. Simultaneous visualisation of geospatial and compositional behaviour data can be useful for triangulating data from diverse disciplines, making sense of complex issues, and for effective knowledge translation

Children's physical activity and active travel: a cross-sectional study of activity spaces, sociodemographic and neighborhood associations

Measures of individual mobility, such as activity space, have been previously used to help improve our understanding of individuals' interactions with their everyday environments. However, such methods have rarely been adopted in studying children's physical activity and active travel behavior. In this study, we use a combination of participatory mapping and accelerometer data collected from children aged 8-13 years living in Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, to describe children's travel behavior and explore associations of active travel, physical activity, and socio-demographic characteristics with environmental attributes. The results from this study reveal complex associations between these different layers. Density of cycling routes was consistently associated with higher levels of physical activity captured via moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), prevalence of active travel, and total activity space exposure. Nevertheless, population density, greenspace, and land-use mix revealed varying associations across different activity behaviors including MVPA, number of steps, and prevalence of active travel. The results from this study not only reassert the complexity of person-environment relationships, but also highlight the potential impacts of measurement and analytical methods on the study results. The novel combination of participatory mapping and accelerometer data together with activity space analysis provided new analytical insights which we discuss in this paper. This study concludes by reporting its observations and envisioning future research directions

Results from New Zealand's 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

In New Zealand (NZ), 88% of health loss is now caused by non-communicable diseases, in part attributed to low levels of physical activity (PA) and high levels of inactivity, and the downstream impacts of these, including suboptimal blood glucose profiles, body size, and blood pressure.1 While the NZ 2016 PA Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth2 revealed relatively high levels of PA, approximately one-third of NZ children and youth did not meet PA recommendations of ≥60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the methods for grade calculation and results of the 2018 update of the PA Report Card for NZ

Results from New Zealand's 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

In New Zealand (NZ), 88% of health loss is now caused by non-communicable diseases, in part attributed to low levels of physical activity (PA) and high levels of inactivity, and the downstream impacts of these, including suboptimal blood glucose profiles, body size, and blood pressure.1 While the NZ 2016 PA Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth2 revealed relatively high levels of PA, approximately one-third of NZ children and youth did not meet PA recommendations of ≥60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the methods for grade calculation and results of the 2018 update of the PA Report Card for NZ