School environments and physical activity: The development and testing of an audit tool

Physical activity undertaken at school break-time can make an important contribution to overall activity levels. However, few studies have investigated the links between the school environment and children’s physical activity.

We developed an audit tool to measure the environmental characteristics of the outside grounds of schools. The 44-item tool examined various elements of the grounds: cycling and walking accessibility, the quantity and quality of facilities, aesthetics, the suitability for play and the overall suitability of the grounds for physical activity. We then examined associations between lunchtime (12noon – 2pm) physical activity of pupils and characteristics of the school grounds.

Ninety-two schools were audited, and a variety of facilities designed to encourage physical activity in school playgrounds were found, with almost all schools having at least some playground markings and painted courts.

Comparison of the mean moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in schools with different characteristics showed differences in activity. In particular schools which measured relatively poorly in the audit were found to have pupils with significantly lower mean times spent in MVPA than schools which measured highly, although the magnitude of the difference was not large.

Jones N.R., Jones A.P., Van Sluijs E.M., Panter J., Harrison F. and Griffin S.J. (2010). The association between school environments and children’s physical activity: the development and testing of an audit tool. Health & Place, 16, 5, 776–783.

Measuring environmental contexts in public health

Considering home and school neighbourhoods and routes to school: Environmental correlates of adiposity

The neighbourhood food environment is thought to act on eating behaviours and adiposity via the opportunities to obtain food, while facilities provision, accessibility and community design are aspects of the environment thought to impact on physical activity. We used data from the SPEEDY study to assess associations between adiposity and the food and physical activity environments of home and school neighbourhoods and routes to school.

After determining the location of the study participants and their schools we defined neighbourhoods (based on a 10 minute walk; 800m) and the shortest route to school (see example in map above). We characterised neighbourhoods and routes in terms of the availability of food outlets and physical activity facilities, the presence of major roads, and land use mix.

Among girls, better access to healthy food outlets in the home environment was associated with lower adiposity while better access to unhealthy outlets around homes and schools was associated with greater adiposity. Also in girls, a higher proportion of accessible open land and a lower mix of land uses around the school were associated with greater adiposity. Among boys the presence of major roads in the home neighbourhood was associated with greater adiposity.

Harrison, F., Jones, A. P., van Sluijs, E. M. F., Cassidy, A., Bentham, G., Griffin, S. J. Environmental correlates of adiposity in 9-10 year old children: considering home and school neighbourhoods and routes to school. Social Science & Medicine In Press.

The Social-ecological model

The social-ecological model proposes that an individual’s behaviour is shaped by wide-ranging factors beyond themselves including the social system in which they operate and the physical environment in which they study, live, or work.

From a public health perspective, the model allows us to understand, for example, how the policy and built environment of a school can influence the eating behaviour of the children that attend it, or how the attitudes of residents and the availability of places to play in a neighbourhood might affect the physical activity levels of the children that live within it.

To best design interventions we need to capture measures of these different contexts so that their influences on health outcomes or behaviours can be identified. Recent advances that allow us to do this include the widespread adoption of geographic information systems (GIS), the development of global positioning systems (GPS), an explosion in the availability of digital datasets, and the development of novel on-the-ground audit tools.

We present three case-studies from the SPEEDY study (a cross-sectional study set up to investigate individual and collective determinants of diet and physical activity in 9-10 year old children), illustrating how these methodologies can be used to integrate social ecological theory into the study of health outcomes and behaviours.

Andreea Cetateanu, Emma Coombes, Alice Dalton, Simon Griffin, Flo Harrison, Andy Jones, Natalia Jones, Kate Lachowycz, Jenna Panter, Esther Rind & Esther van Sluijs

Contact: Dr Andy Jones,School of Environmental Science,University of East Anglia,Norwich, NR4 7TJa.p.jones@uea.ac.uk

Using Global Positioning Systems to study physical activity patterns

Whilst accelerometers allow us to objectively measure how the physical activity patterns of individuals vary through the day, they do not record where people are when they are active. The recent development of portable low-cost GPS devices now allows us to record the location of activity bouts. We have demonstrated their potential in the SPEEDY GPS study.

Children wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer and a Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS unit for four consecutive days. Accelerometery data points were matched to GPS locations (see map above), and bouts of five minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were identified. The locations of bouts were overlaid with a detailed map of land uses to identify the types of environment being used.

Children tended to be active close to home, with 63% of all bout time occurring within 800m of their home, although boys and rural children were more likely to be active outside this distance. Amongst urban children, gardens (28% of bout time) and the street environment (20%) were the most commonly used places for bouts. Amongst rural children, farmland (22%) and grassland (18%) were most frequent. The results emphasise the importance of green environments such as gardens and farmland for supporting children’s activity.

Jones, A.P., Coombes, E.G., Griffin, S.J. and Van Sluijs, E.M.F. (2009). Environmental supportiveness for physical activity in English schoolchildren: a study using Global Positioning Systems. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity, 6, Art. 42.

Individual(knowledge,

attitude, skills)

Interpersonal(family, friends, social network)

Organisational(schools, workplaces)

Community(cultural values, norms)

Public policy(national and local)

Conducting a school grounds audit

UKCRC

CENTRE FOR DIET AND ACTIVITY RESEARCH

(CEDAR)