Abstract
Objectives
This study examined the effect of physical environment on cycling to and from school among boys and girls of Turkish and Moroccan origin living in Amsterdam.
Methods
The LASER study (n = 697) was an interview study that included information on cycling to and from school and the perceived physical environment. Objective information on physical environment was gathered from Statistics Netherlands and the Department for Research and Statistics at the Municipality of Amsterdam. Structural equation modelling with latent variables was applied, taking into account age, gender, self-assessed health, education, country of origin, and distance to school.
Results
For every unit increase in the latent variable scale for bicycle-friendly infrastructure, we observed a 21 % increase in the odds for cycling to and from school. The association was only borderline statistically significant and disappeared after controlling for distance to school. The enjoyable environment was not associated with cycling to and from school after controlling for all background factors.
Conclusions
Bicycle-friendly infrastructure and an enjoyable environment were not important factors for cycling to and from school among those with no cultural cycling background.
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Acknowledgments
The Research Programme on the Future of Work and Well-Being and the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland supported this study. The travel grant to the Netherlands to the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) was received from the Doctoral Programmes in Public Health (DPPH). This study was finalised with the support of the Academy of Finland (Grant Number 266759). We would also like to acknowledge all personnel at the AMC responsible for collecting the LASER dataset and acquiring the register datasets linked to the LASER dataset.
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Mäki-Opas, T.E., de Munter, J., Maas, J. et al. The association between physical environment and cycling to school among Turkish and Moroccan adolescents in Amsterdam. Int J Public Health 59, 629–636 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0565-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0565-7