A study by a team from Edinburgh University suggests that walking to school creates an energetic teenager, likely to spend time in additional activities.

The team, led by Leslie Alexander, an honorary Fellow of the Public Health Sciences department, recruited four classes, each of about thirty pupils aged 13 to 14, from schools in the area.

They explained the project and issued each child with an accelerometer, a device that measures vertical movement and can thus detect running, jumping and other vigorous activities.

They asked the children to wear the devices on their hips while awake — unless they were showering, bathing or swimming — so that it was possible to work out how active they were at any moment.

In the online version of the British Medical Journal the team reports that, after ignoring faulty instruments and children who failed to wear them, ninety-two accrued at least ten hours of valid data on at least three days.

These were divided into those that travelled to school and back by car, bus or train; those that did one journey on foot; and those that did both journeys on foot. Only two reported cycling, too few to include in the analysis.

The results show that those who walked both ways also did more exercise at other times. On a typical weekday those that walked both ways did 123min 6sec of moderate to physical activity — 25 per cent more than those who went by car, bus or train, although some of that difference was accounted for by the walks; but there were also significant benefits at other times of the day.

Outside school hours the children who walked did 17 per cent more moderate to vigorous activity than those who were carried. Even inside school hours they did nearly 9 per cent more.

The authors say that similar results have been found in studies for ten-year-olds, but for five-year-olds the mode of travel to school did not appear to have any effect.

The research confirms the widely held belief that, whereas young children are energetic enough not to need encouragement, those in their early teens benefit from regular exercise, which seems to inspire them to do more.

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