Increasing children's volume of physical activity through walk and play

This document looks at the contribution of walking and playing outside the home to children’s volume of physical activity. The document draws on research carried out at University College London (UCL) in which 200 children were fitted with three-dimensional motion sensors and asked to keep travel and activity diaries over a period of four days. From these it is possible to establish what the children did, how they travelled and how much energy they used. Using these data, the contributions of unstructured out-of-home events (playing) and walking to children’s volume of physical activity are demonstrated. It is also shown that these unstructured events tend to be associated with walking rather than use of the car, unlike structured out-of-home events. It is also shown that children who walk to events tend to be more active when they arrive than those who travel by car. The effect of an initiative to promote walking is considered. Conclusions are drawn about the need to remove various barriers to enable children to spend more time out of the home where they will be more active and so lead healthier lives, and the value of facilitating opportunities for walking

Cities for children: the effects of car use on their lives

9-11 June 2004 In Britain, children are walking less than they used to. A major factor causing this decrease is the growth in car use. These trends are reducing children’s quantity of physical activity, with serious implications for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore these themes using results from a 3-year research project entitled ‘Reducing children’s car use: the health and potential car dependency impacts’ which has been carried out in the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London in collaboration with others including Hertfordshire County Council, with fieldwork being carried out in Hertfordshire, an area immediately north of London. A major component of the project was a study of 200 children aged between 10 and 13 years of age using motion sensors coupled with the use of a travel and activity diary over four days. The sensors measured movement in three dimensions which was converted to activity calories, a measure of physical activity. Events from the travel and activity diaries were mapped onto the data from the sensors so that it was possible to isolate and analyse specific time periods, events and journeys. From these data, the comparative effects of different forms of transport on children’s physical activity have been established, producing clear evidence of the benefits of walking compared with car travel. It is found that the use of the car is linked to particular types of activity. For example, structured out-of-home activities, such as clubs and sports lessons tend to be reached by car while informal activities such as playing, are associated more with walking. This means that the shift from the latter to the former is one of the factors underlying children’s increasing use of the car. The motion sensors have facilitated the calculation of the intensity of various activities in terms of using activity calories. Walking is second only to physical education (PE) or games lessons in intensity. It was found that, for the older children, walking to and from school for a week used more activity calories than two hours of PE or games lessons, which is the recommended standard in Britain. It was also found that children who walk to activities are more active when they arrive at activities than those who travel by car, particularly in the more energetic activities, which suggests that walking brings wider health benefits than is generally recognised. Another strand of the project upon which this paper is based is the evaluation of walking buses. From the various surveys in the study it appears that about half of the trips on walking buses were previously walked, but there is not an equivalent decrease in the number of car trips because many of the children were being dropped at school in the course of a longer trip by a parent

Overcoming the barriers to walking for children

This paper is an output from the project CAPABLE (Children?s Activities,Perceptions and Behaviour in the Local Environment) being carried out at UCL,jointly between the Centre for Transport Studies, the Department of Psychology, theBartlett School of Planning and the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. The overallaim of the project, which runs from 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2006, is to examine theinteraction between children and the local environment, including identifying howchildren use open space and streets, and why they go to some places but not others.This paper draws on results from questionnaires completed by children about theextent to which they are allowed out unaccompanied by an adult. The surveys werecarried out in four schools, two in Hertfordshire, the area immediately north ofLondon, and two in the London Borough of Lewisham. The purpose is to establish theextent to which the children are allowed by their parents to go out unaccompanied byadults. The issues covered include whether the children go out walking or cyclingwithout an adult, whether they are allowed out alone to visit friends houses, go outafter dark or to cross main roads. The results are considered in terms of the children?sage and gender, and in terms of the households? car ownership level and the strengthof its local social networks. It is found that more of the children in Hertfordshire areallowed out alone, despite the fact that the factors that seem to correlate with beingallowed out unaccompanied are stronger in Lewisham. It is concluded that this maywell be due to environmental factors, real and perceived

Increasing the amount of walking by children

Children’s car use is increasing. As a result of this, they are walking less. This has serious implications for their quantity of physical activity and consequently for their health. In this paper, findings are presented from a research project being carried out in the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London to examine these effects. A major element of the research involved fitting 200 children with portable motion sensors for a period of four days to measure their quantity of physical activity. In parallel with this, they kept travel and activity diaries, so that it was possible to establish how much energy they consumed in various activities, including walking. It is shown that walking to school for a week consumes more calories than one week’s worth of physical education (PE) and games lessons, and that children who walk to events tend to use more energy in participating in them than children who are driven by car. The effectiveness of a specific initiative to encourage children to shift from the car to walking, namely the walking bus, is examined in detail, and found to be effective in helping to achieve this objective

Setting Children Free: Children’s Independent Movement in the Local Environment

Parental concerns about children’s safety and security are restricting children’s independent exploration of the local environment. Children are being denied important opportunities to exercise, to acquire decision-making skills, such as crossing the road safely, and to develop social skills through interaction with their peers. This paper presents findings from the project CAPABLE (Children’s Activities, Perceptions And Behaviour in the Local Environment) being carried out at University College London. Based on findings from fieldwork carried out with children aged 8-11 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the paper shows the effect of factors such as the number of adults at home, having an older sibling, having a car or garden at home and living near to a park on the propensity to be allowed out alone. Then it considers how being allowed out alone affects the amount of time children spend outdoors, playing with friends and watching television. The paper then uses data from children who have been fitted with physical activity monitors and GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) monitors and asked to keep diaries, to show how children’s travel behaviour differs when they are with adults from when they are not

Identification of potential diagnostic markers of prostate cancer and prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia using cDNA microarray

The identification of novel genes or groups of genes expressed in prostate cancer may allow earlier diagnosis or more accurate staging of the disease. We describe the assembly and use of a 1877-member microarray representing cDNA clones from a range of prostate cancer stages and grades, precursor lesions and normal tissue. Using labelled cDNA from tumour samples obtained from TURP or radical prostatectomy, analysis of expression patterns identified many up-regulated transcripts. Cell lines were found to over-express fewer genes than diseased tissue samples. 17 known genes were found to over-express more than 4-fold in 4 or more cancers out of 15 cancers. Only 2 genes were over-expressed in 6 out of 15 cancers or more, whilst no genes were consistently found to be over-expressed in all cancer samples. Novel prostate cancer associations for several well characterized genes or full length cDNAs were identified, including PLRP1, JM27, human UbcM2, dynein light intermediate chain 2 and human homologue of rat sec61. Novel associations with high-grade PIN include: breast carcinoma fatty acid synthase and cDNA DKFZp434B0335. We shortlist and discuss the most significant over-expressed genes in prostate cancer and PIN, and highlight expression differences between malignant and benign samples. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Crossing disciplines to address urban sustainability

This paper presents findings from the evaluation of Bridging the Gaps: Sustainable Urban Spaces (BTG), a novel interdisciplinary sustainability research funding program at University College London (UCL), funded by the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). All of the EPSRC's Bridging the Gaps programs aim to initiate and support interdisciplinary collaboration within a university. The program at UCL was designed to create research partnerships that focus on problems in the area of sustainable urban spaces, an area that features complex problems that often overlap different academic disciplines. The program initially focused on building relationships within the three UCL faculties: The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, The Faculty of Engineering Sciences, and The Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, but subsequently brought in participants from other faculties. Bridging the Gaps has brought together researchers working on different elements of a problem, allowing each of them to contribute approaches from their own discipline. This paper presents feedback from participants in the program. Respondents discuss their experience in cross disciplinary working and its importance for their work. We address the question of whether the benefits are outweighed by the complexities of crossing disciplines, and we investigate the role that programs like BTG can play in making the process easier. We also discuss the challenge of creating the conditions for interdisciplinary work and ways in which we can use our experience to minimize the barriers of crossing disciplines in the future

Clinical decision-making in remote rheumatology consultations: a service evaluation of new patient and inflammatory rheumatic disease follow-up appointments.

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