title: Gamification of active travel to school: A pilot evaluation of the Beat the Street physical activity intervention.
abstract: Beat the Street aims to get children more active by encouraging them to walk and cycle in their neighbourhood using tracking technology with a reward scheme. This pilot study evaluates the impact of Beat the Street on active travel to school in Norwich, UK. Eighty children 8-10 yrs were recruited via an intervention and control school. They wore an accelerometer for 7 days at baseline, mid-intervention and post-intervention (+20 weeks), and completed a travel diary. Physical activity overall was not higher at follow-up amongst intervention children compared to controls. However, there was a positive association between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during school commute times and the number of days on which children touched a Beat the Street sensor. This equated to 3.46min extra daily MVPA during commute times for children who touched a sensor on 14.5 days (the mean number of days), compared to those who did not engage. We also found weekly active travel increased at the intervention school (+10.0% per child) while it decreased at the control (-7.0%), p=0.056. Further work is needed to understand how improved engagement with the intervention might impact outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; UKCRC Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, UK. Electronic address: emma.coombes@uea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coombes
authors.affiliation: Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; UKCRC Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, UK. Electronic address: a.p.jones@uea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry / Q000379:methods; D001642:Bicycling; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012574:Schools; D006113:United Kingdom; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Active travel; Children; Gamification; Physical activity; School