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Make Biking, Walking to School Safe, CDC Urges Thu Aug 15, 5:21 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As many as 20 million US schoolchildren may be missing out on the chance to bike or walk to school--and add much needed exercise into their daily routines--due to traffic dangers, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. Parents and communities should get together to map out safe biking and walking routes for schoolchildren, the CDC recommends. According to the CDC, 43% of US high school students spend at least 2 hours a day watching television. Rates of overweight and obesity among youngsters have tripled since the late 1970s and now run as high as 14% among US children. Rates are even higher in African-American and Hispanic communities. With childhood obesity skyrocketing, health experts are searching for ways to get kids moving. Walking or biking to school is one way children can increase their activity levels, but just one in seven trips to school are made under a child's own power. The CDC identifies barriers US kids face to walking or biking to school in a study published in this Friday's issue of the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC surveyed 749 US households with children between the ages of 5 and 18. Participants reported how their child got to school and what, if any, barriers existed to their child's traveling on foot or by bike. Approximately one third of schoolchildren ride a bus and half are driven to school in private vehicles, the investigators found. While most students live roughly 2 miles from school, a relatively long distance to walk or bike, the agency notes that "many children do not walk or bike to school even when distances are short." Only 31% of trips to school are made on foot and only 2% by bike among children living 2 miles or less from their school, the researchers report. The survey also found that about 40% of kids don't walk or bike to school because of traffic dangers perceived by their parents. This translates to roughly 20 million US children missing the chance to keep off excess pounds. While dangerous motor vehicle traffic is a real obstacle to children walking or biking to school, the CDC argues that public health and community-based efforts could address this concern. Parents and communities could work together to identify safe walking and biking routes to school, the agency recommends. "Many US communities are facilitating walking and biking to school by addressing traffic safety concerns, mapping safe routes to local schools, building new schools in residential neighborhoods, and involving parents in programs such as Walking School Bus, Bike Trains and Walk to School Day," the CDC researchers note. One such program in Marin County, California, has increased student walking and biking by 57%, the CDC points out. SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2002;51:701-703. Getting Kids to Walk to School Still an Uphill Battle Thu Aug 15,11:50 PM ET By Adam Marcus THURSDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthScoutNews) -- When our parents were kids, they walked five miles to school and back every day. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. How times have changed. Nowadays, only one in seven American kids walks or bikes to school at least once a week, according to a new federal government survey released today. And while the average youngster lives within two miles of school -- a hefty distance -- most of those who live half that far away or closer rarely walk or ride a bike to class, the survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( news - web sites) (CDC) found. A previous survey revealed that among children living within a mile of school, 31 percent of their trips were made on foot, while a scant 2 percent were made by bike. That's well shy of the government's hope that in 2010, students who live a mile or closer to school will walk there at least half the time. To be sure, many parents complain that distance, traffic, crime, bad weather and other factors keep their kids from walking or biking to school, the new survey found. And pedestrian and biking injuries are leading causes of death among U.S. children, accounting for 800 fatalities a year, as well as 200 non-fatal injuries, officials say. "Parents are justified in their concerns," says Dr. Catherine Staunton, a CDC injury expert and co-author of the new survey, the first of its kind to examine these worries. Still, Staunton adds, even without such barriers, most children choose to be driven to school anyway. On the other hand, the new survey found that almost two-thirds of the 16 percent who didn't face any of these obstacles walked at least once a week, and 21 percent of them biked. Those with no barriers were six times as likely to walk or bike to school as were those with at least one or more, Staunton says. Walking or biking to school are good ways of reaching the recommended 30 minutes a day of moderately vigorous exercise -- exercise Americans of all ages are loath to perform. This national indolence, combined with greedy appetites, is taking its toll on the country's waistband, and children are not immune. The percentage of children who are now overweight has more than doubled in the past 30 years, officials say. The national numbers are echoed by a related CDC survey of Georgians from 2000. That report, also released today, showed that about 4 percent of students age 5 to 15 in that state walked to school most days. The rate was better among those living within a mile of campus, 19 percent. But the vast majority either took a school bus or were driven to school by a parent or other adult. Blacks and older students were more likely to report walking or biking to class than were younger children and those of different races and ethnicities, says Jessica Shisler, a CDC health educator who helped conduct the state survey. Together, the findings stress the need for communities to create safe walking and biking routes, health officials say. Possible measures include regulating traffic speed and improving driver visibility in these zones, encouraging "walking school buses" -- on-foot caravans of kids shepherded by adults -- and even relocating schools to denser areas. The CDC four years ago implemented the KidsWalk-to-School program, which has since been incorporated by many states, Shisler says. Every state participates in the International Walk to School Day, which this year falls on Oct. 2.
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