Joanna Catherine Inchley

The broader impact of walking to school among adolescents: seven day accelerometry based study

How children travel to and from school may significantly influence their overall physical activity levels.1 2 We measured moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among adolescents and explored their means of travel to and from school. We recruited four classes, each of about 30 pupils aged 13-14 years, from four schools in the Edinburgh area. We visited the classes three times: to introduce the study and distribute consent forms and information for pupils and parents or guardians; to allocate accelerometers (instruments used to measure vertical movement); and to collect accelerometers and issue questionnaires. Inclusion in the study required consent from pupils and primary guardians. In spring 2004 we obtained objective measures of the childrens activity with precalibrated accelerometers (MTI, Fort Walton, Florida; model 7164), which record activity accumulated each minute.3 We asked the pupils to wear the accelerometers on their hip from waking until bedtime, except while showering, bathing, swimming, and participating in other water based activities. We used age specific cut-off points (on …

Trends in adolescent eating behaviour: a multilevel cross-sectional study of 11–15 year olds in Scotland, 2002–2010

BACKGROUND Improving the diet of the Scottish population has been a government focus in recent years. Health promotion is known to be more effective in affluent groups. Alongside trends in eating behaviour, changes in socioeconomic inequalities must be monitored. METHODS Eating behaviour data from the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Scotland Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey were modelled using multilevel linear modelling. RESULTS Fruit and vegetable consumption increased between 2002 and 2010 by 0.26 and 0.27 days per week, respectively, while consumption of sweets, chips and crisps fell by 0.73, 1.25 and 0.99 days per week, respectively. An overall healthy eating score, calculated by summing food item weekly consumption, increased significantly (at 95% level of significance) over this period. Fruit and vegetable consumption was more frequent among children with high family affluence (individual measure of socioeconomic status), while consumption of crisps and chips was less frequent. When an interaction term was added between year and family affluence, this was not significant for any outcome. Variance at the education authority and school levels remained significant for all outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent eating behaviours in Scotland have improved over time across the family affluence scale gradient as a whole, with persistent inequalities. Alongside population programmes, initiatives directed at more deprived groups are required.

Active travel to school: views of 10-13 year old schoolchildren in Scotland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of Scottish schoolchildren on active travel to school and their ideas about promotion strategies for school‐based interventions.Design/methodology/approach – Focus group discussions were conducted with 66 students from four primary and three secondary schools.Findings – The most common perceived barriers to active school travel were personal safety, weather conditions and time/distance. To a lesser extent, image, physical discomfort and aspects of the physical environment also prevented children from walking or cycling to school. Perceived benefits centred on health and fitness, environmental and social factors. Enjoyment, confidence and social influences were all discussed, with the latter appearing to have the most significant impact on active travel behaviour. Students suggested a number of potential promotion strategies, including incentives and reward schemes to enhance motivation. Practical exercises such as a group walk or cycle were more ...

Conceptualizing, measuring and evaluating constructs of the adolescent neighbourhood social environment: A systematic review

This work was supported by the 600th Anniversary PhD Scholarship which was awarded to Gina Martin by the University of St Andrews.

Assessing the psychometric and ecometric properties of neighborhood scales using adolescent survey data from urban and rural Scotland

BackgroundDespite the well-established need for specific measurement instruments to examine the relationship between neighborhood conditions and adolescent well-being outcomes, few studies have developed scales to measure features of the neighborhoods in which adolescents reside. Moreover, measures of neighborhood features may be operationalised differently by adolescents living in different levels of urban/rurality. This has not been addressed in previous studies. The objectives of this study were to: 1) establish instruments to measure adolescent neighborhood features at both the individual and neighborhood level, 2) assess their psychometric and ecometric properties, 3) test for invariance by urban/rurality, and 4) generate neighborhood level scores for use in further analysis.MethodsData were from the Scottish 2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey, which included an over-sample of rural adolescents. The survey responses of interest came from questions designed to capture different facets of the local area in which each respondent resided. Intermediate data zones were used as proxies for neighborhoods. Internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. Invariance was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Multilevel models were used to estimate ecometric properties and generate neighborhood scores.ResultsTwo constructs labeled neighborhood social cohesion and neighborhood disorder were identified. Adjustment was made to the originally specified model to improve model fit and measures of invariance. At the individual level, reliability was .760 for social cohesion and .765 for disorder, and between .524 and .571 for both constructs at the neighborhood level. Individuals in rural areas experienced greater neighborhood social cohesion and lower levels of neighborhood disorder compared with those in urban areas.ConclusionThe scales are appropriate for measuring neighborhood characteristics experienced by adolescents across urban and rural Scotland, and can be used in future studies of neighborhoods and health. However, trade-offs between neighborhood sample size and reliability must be considered.