Poor kids more likely to walk to school

Children of single parents who live in an urban economically disadvantaged home are more likely to walk or bicycle to school, researchers in Canada say. Dr. Roman Pabayo of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center tracked 7,690 children in Canada as they aged throughout their school years. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, shows children increasingly use "active transport" -- walking and bicycling but excluding public transportation, school buses and driving -- to get to school until they reach 10 or 11, and then the trend reverses. "The study is important for the well-being of children because most children are not meeting physical activity guidelines needed for optimal growth and development," Pabayo says in a statement. "Active transportation to school represents an affordable and easy way to incorporate physical activity in the daily routines of children. In a separate study on children in Quebec, we have actually found significant associations between weight and whether the child cycles or walks to school." Several factors were associated with transport choice, such as children of parents who reported their child had many friends in their area were more than twice as likely to increase their active commuting.