Trial reportPediatrics2011
The walking school bus and children's physical activity: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Pediatrics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- School-based physical activity programs for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- A mixed-studies systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based interventions to promote physical activity and/or reduce sedentary time in children.Journal of sport and health science · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of active school transport interventions: a systematic review and update.BMC public health · 2018Pooled it
- Promoting active travel to school: a systematic review (2010-2016).BMC public health · 2017Pooled it
- Do Interventions to Increase Walking Work? A Systematic Review of Interventions in Children and Adolescents.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2016Pooled it
- Perceived barriers to children's active commuting to school: a systematic review of empirical, methodological and theoretical evidence.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2014Pooled it
- Effects of a school-based cycling intervention on commuting to school behavior and device-measured activity in Spanish adolescents: the PACO cluster-randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Trial
- Evaluation of a walking school bus program: a cluster randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Trial
- A mobile app-based intervention improves anthropometry, body composition and fitness, regardless of previous active-inactive status: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Impact of Walking School Bus Programs on Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations.Journal of physical activity & health · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Bicycle Trains, Cycling, and Physical Activity: A Pilot Cluster RCT.American journal of preventive medicine · 2017Trial
- A Multimodal Counseling-Based Adolescent Physical Activity Intervention.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2016Trial
- The influence of the built environment on outcomes from a "walking school bus study": a cross-sectional analysis using geographical information systems.Geospatial health · 2014Trial
- Understanding the synergies among factors shaping parents' intention to use walking school buses.Npj sustainable mobility and transport · 2026Article
- Article
- Children's active school transportation: an international scoping review of psychosocial factors.Systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Active School Commuting in School Children: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence and Future Research Implications.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Mobile Subthreshold Exercise Program (MSTEP) for concussion: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2022Article
- Effects of Large-Scale Municipal Safe Routes to School Infrastructure on Student Active Travel and Physical Activity: Design, Methods, and Baseline Data of the Safe Travel Environment Evaluation in Texas Schools (STREETS) Natural Experiment.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the impact of a "walking school bus" program on children's rates of active commuting to school and physical activity.
methodsWe conducted a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial among 4th-graders from 8 schools in Houston, Texas (N = 149). Random allocation to treatment or control conditions was at the school level. Study staff walked with children to and from school up to 5 days/week. Outcomes were measured the week before (time 1) and during weeks 4 and 5 of the intervention (time 2). The main outcome was the weekly rate of active commuting, and a secondary outcome was moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Covariates included sociodemographics, distance from home to school, neighborhood safety, child BMI z score, parent self-efficacy/outcome expectations, and child self-efficacy for active commuting. A mixed-model repeated measures regression accounted for clustering by school, and stepwise procedures with backward elimination of nonsignificant covariates were used to identify significant predictors.
resultsIntervention children increased active commuting (mean ± SD) from 23.8% ± 9.2% (time 1) to 54% ± 9.2% (time 2), whereas control subjects decreased from 40.2% ± 8.9% (time 1) to 32.6% ± 8.9% (time 2) (P < .0001). Intervention children increased their minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity from 46.6 ± 4.5 (time 1) to 48.8 ± 4.5 (time 2), whereas control children decreased from 46.1 ± 4.3 (time 1) to 41.3 ± 4.3 (time 2) (P = .029).
conclusionsThe program improved children's active commuting to school and daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
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Registered trials
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