title: Bicycling to school improves the cardiometabolic risk factor profile: a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether bicycling to school improves cardiometabolic risk factor profile and cardiorespiratory fitness among children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, blinded, randomised controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Single centre study in Odense, Denmark
  
  
  METHODS
  43 children previously not bicycling to school were randomly allocated to control group (n=20) (ie, no change in lifestyle) or intervention group (ie, bicycling to school) (n=23).
  
  
  METHODS
  Change in cardiometabolic risk factor score and change in cardiorespiratory fitness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All participants measured at baseline returned at follow-up. Based upon intention-to-treat (ITT) analyses, clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors was lowered by 0.58 SD (95% CI -1.03 to -0.14, p=0.012) in the bicycling group compared to the control group. Cardiorespiratory fitness (l O(2)/min) per se did not increase significantly more in the intervention than in the control group (β=0.0337, 95% CI -0.06 to 0.12, p=0.458).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bicycling to school counteracted a clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors and should thus be recognised as potential prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The intervention did, however, not elicit a larger increase in cardiorespiratory fitness in the intervention group as compared with the control group.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01236222).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ostergaard
authors.forename: Line A B
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Børrestad
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tarp
authors.forename: Lars Bo
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Andersen