Active school commuting among Spanish youth: Social inequalities, environment, and health implications 🚶‍♀🚴🏿‍♂️️️🏫

E. Vidal-Tortosa, P. Campos-Garzón, A. Ruiz-Alarcón, J. Molina-García, P. Chillón

🎯 Introduction

Rationale

– Active commuting to and from school (ACS) boost physical activity (PA)—especially for disadvantaged youth—but little is known about their engagement or how environments shape it.

Aims

– To examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), migration background, and both usual mode and weekly frequency of ACS

– To assess how home-neighbourhood environmental characteristics shape these relationships

Data & Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of 366 urban adolescents in Spain, based on data from the PACO study (self-reported commuting questionnaire linked with home-neighbourhood geospatial data).

Analytical Approach:

– Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression (individuals nested in schools)

– Two-step modelling:

🔹 Step 1: Adjusted for sociodemographic variables

🔹 Step 2: Added environmental characteristics to explore contextual influences

📈 Results – Descriptive Statistics

Figure 1: Usual mode of commuting to and from school by social groups

🧮 Results – Regression Models

Figure 2: ORs and 95% CIs for the associations between socioeconomic status and migration background with usual mode of commuting (1 = active, 0 = passive) and weekly frequency of active commuting (n° trips) to and from school. Estimates are adjusted for sociodemographic and environmental covariates

✅ Conclusions

Main findings

– Disadvantaged groups engaged more in ACS: higher-SES students used active modes less and made fewer trips (both directions); students without migratory background used active modes less from school.

– Differences disappeared after adjusting for home-neighbourhood environment; home–school distance was the strongest factor.

– Other environmental features (residential density, land use mix, perceived environment) showed weak/inconsistent links; pedestrian infrastructure not significant.

Interpretation

– ACS may help compensate for disparities in structured PA

– Environmental context helps explain social gradients in ACS

Implications

– Policy should prioritise short home–school distances and safe, supportive conditions for those who rely on ACS, particularly for afternoon travel

– Equity-focused support for ACS may reduce PA inequalities and promote transport justice and health equity