Do neighbourhood characteristics matter in understanding school children’s active lifestyles? a cross-region multi-city comparison of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hong Kong

Olsen, J. R. , Leung, K. Y.K., Nicholls, N. and Loo, B. P.Y. (2021) Do neighbourhood characteristics matter in understanding school children’s active lifestyles? a cross-region multi-city comparison of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. Children's Geographies, 19(4), pp. 488-504. (doi: 10.1080/14733285.2020.1828826) (PMID:34790065) (PMCID:PMC7611993)

Abstract

Many studies have explored the influence of individual and neighbourhood factors on active school travel (AST), this novel study is the first to examine how AST and formal extracurricular activities are associated with children’s active lifestyles. The aims of this study were to (a) create an active lifestyle variable (ALIFE) measured in terms of total weekly minutes of AST and extracurricular activities, and (b) explore how ALIFE is associated with different attributes at the individual, household and neighbourhood levels, and how these relationships differ for children aged 10 and 11 years old across the three cities: Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. We found environmental factors to be important indicators of lower AST, for example greater parking facility density. The most substantial contribution to children’s overall ALIFE was household income, those from the lowest household group having almost 2 h less ALIFE per-week than those from the highest income.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Olsen, Dr Jonathan and Nicholls, Dr Natalie
• Authors: Olsen, J. R., Leung, K. Y.K., Nicholls, N., and Loo, B. P.Y.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU
• Journal Name: Children's Geographies
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1473-3285
• ISSN (Online): 1473-3277
• Published Online: 21 October 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Children's Geographies 2020
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
72762	1	SPHSU Core Renewal: Neighbourhoods and Communities Research Programme	Anne Ellaway	Medical Research Council (MRC)	MC_UU_12017/10	IHW - MRC/CSO SPHU
				Chief Scientist Office (CSO)	SPHSU10