Weight status, modes of travel to school and screen time: a cross-sectional survey of children aged 10-13 years in Sydney.
OBJECTIVE
The relationship between weight status and modes of travel to school and screen time of children is not clearly understood. This study aims to explore these relationships of Australian children aged 10-13 years.


METHODS
Weight and height, modes of travel to school and screen time of 1,362 children were reported by their parents. The international standard age adjusted BMI (weight/height2) was used to classify children's weight status. Factors associated with overweight and obesity were determined by logistic regression modelling.


RESULTS
Twenty-one per cent of children were classified as overweight or obese and 36% went to school by car daily. Compared with children who were driven to school daily, children who walked to school daily were significantly less likely to be obese, with an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 0.20 (95%CI 0.16 to 0.74; p=0.05). Children whose screen time was more than two hours a day were also more likely to be obese (AOR 3.5, 95%CI 1.13 to 8.26; p=0.03) than those who spent less than one hour a day watching a screen.


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that being driven to school daily and longer screen time are associated with children's obesity.
Wen
Li Ming
LM
School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia and Health Promotion Service, Sydney South West Area Health Service, NSW, Australia. lmwen@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
Merom
Dafna
D
Rissel
Chris
C
Simpson
Judy M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013334:Students; D013690:Television; D014505:Urban Population; D018910:Video Games; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*