title: Walking or bicycling to school and weight status among adolescents from Montería, Colombia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Active school transport (AST) is a recommended strategy to promote physical activity (PA) and prevent overweight (OW) in school-aged children. In many developing countries, such as Colombia, this association has not been well characterized.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the association between AST and weight status in a representative sample of adolescents from Montería, Colombia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 546 adolescents (278 boys) aged 11 to 18 years old from 14 randomly selected schools in Montería, Colombia in 2008. The PA module of the Global School Health Survey (GSHS-2007) was used to determine the prevalence of AST. To identify OW, participants were classified according to CDC 2000 criteria (BMI ≥ 85th percentile). Association between AST and OW was determined by binomial logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Odds ratios adjusted for age, sex, location of school, compliance with PA, and screen time recommendations showed that adolescents who reported AST had a significantly lower likelihood to be OW compared with adolescents who reported nonactive transportation (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.8, P < .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results support the importance of AST as a useful PA domain with potential implications for overweight prevention, in rapidly developing settings. Further epidemiologic and intervention studies addressing AST are needed in the region.
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Carlos Mario
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Arango
authors.forename: Diana C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eyler
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sarmiento
authors.forename: Sonia C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Mantilla
authors.forename: Luis Fernando
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lobelo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001642:Bicycling / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D050177:Overweight; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*