Gender-Differentiated Analysis of the Correlation between Active Commuting to School vs. Active Commuting to Extracurricular Physical Activity Practice during Adolescence

Abstract

Active commuting to school in children and adolescents can help achieve compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for physical activity. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the mode of transport used to go to school and the mode of transport used to go to extracurricular sports practice. Multistage random cluster sampling was conducted to include 128 schools with the participation of 11,017 students between the ages of 5 and 19. Participants completed the survey of sports habits designed by the National Sports Council. The results revealed that the mode of transport used to go to school is significantly related to the mode of transport used to go to sports practice. A total of 54.3% of students aged 5 to 19 years walk to school. A total of 23.7% of boys walk and 7.9% bike to extracurricular physical activities vs. 24.1% of girls who walk. The fact that girls only walk to extracurricular physical activities implies that the organized sports activities were nearby. Therefore, it seems crucial to have a wide range of physical activities on offer locally to promote extracurricular physical activity participation for girls.