Objective. The objectives of this study were: a) to analyse the association between mode of commuting to school (i.e., active vs passive) and the distance from home to school; b) to identify the criterion distance below which young people are more likely to walk to school and c) to analyse if this distance changes regarding the gender, age and area of residence.
Method. A total of 6004 scholars between 8 to 18 years old from 39 schools from Granada, Almería and Murcia participated in this study. It was a cross-sectional study carried out in November 2012. Scholars self-reported a questionnaire asking about mode of commuting to school and their family postal address. The distance between their homes and school was calculated using the shortest walking distance on Google Maps. T-Student, Mann-Whitney test and Chi-Square test were used to study the mode of commuting variables to/from the school regarding gender (female/male), educational stage (primary/secondary) and area of residence (urban/rural). Associations between active commuting and distance were examined using ROC curves analysis separately for gender, educational stage and area of residence.
Results. Nearly 61% of scholars commuted actively (mainly walking) to school, reporting higher results in Primary stage and in urban area. The criterion distance for walking to school for all participants was 1250m, for females and males participants was 1250m and 1350m respectively, for primary and secondary participants was 875m and 1350m respectively and for urban and rural participants was 1250m and 1350m respectively.
Conclusion. The criterion distance from home to school was 1250m among Spanish students, which is an important correlate of transport mode to school. Future interventions to promote active commuting should consider the distance that young people walk.
Corresponding author. crdguez@ugr.es
