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Evaluation of a Mobile App-Based Methodology Used to Boost Volunteer Participation in Walking School Buses
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Oral Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 5 (2017) S3–S63
Research 2000 Smart Transport Systems: Planning and Designing Transport Systems to Support Public Health n
Ghassan Abu-Lebdeh
American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Background: In the context of city operations and management, smart generally implies“…turning to technology to better connect our communities, improving citizen services”, and, more importantly, finding more intelligent ways to manage city resources and assets. It is a common notion that a city transportation system is a critical asset that must be intelligently managed to enable a better quality of life. It is less clear, however, that a city transportation system is in fact a public health tool and enabler. A transportation system, though, is not just the physical system it is; it is the integration of several activities some of which involve physical assets while other involve policies, standards and norms, that take place over long time span and involve significant resources including technology. Catering for public health should be an integral part of the smart city movement and thinking. Methods: The paper first examines the different activities involved in putting together a transportation system, namely: Planning, Design, construction, Operations (management), Maintenance, and, in some cases, Decommissioning (henceforth PDCOMD), and then maps those activities to known public health outcomes. The paper notes that certain activities of the transport system development process are more suited to serve public health than others. For one, transportation system planning is fundamental to ensuring suitable integration of public health in the early stages of putting the transport system together. The operations activity is equally critical but historically—and to this day– seldom viewed or used as the public health tool it is. Results: This paper shows that “smart” as in integration of information and communication technology to improve efficiency of the transportation system may or may not serve public health; public health considerations in some cases require the calming/slowing down and spatial shifting– thus the appearance of inefficiency– of certain elements of the transportation system. Alternatively, the notion of efficiency as applied to transportation systems may need to be modified to explicitly incorporate aspects of public health. Conclusions: The now trendy notion that information sensing, connectivity, and computation form the backbone of smart cities is questioned. The paper presents an alternate framework where public health is made integral to the notion of smart cities through explicit consideration and integration in key transportation system activities. Adopting an encompassing definition of “health” and “healthy” is vital. Among the many transport system activities, the paper identifies two, planning and operating, where public health consideration is particularly consequential. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.05.319
Research 2013 Evaluation of a Mobile App-Based Methodology Used to Boost Volunteer Participation in Walking School Buses n
Pedro Pérez-Martín , Gerardo Pedrós, Pilar Martínez-Jiménez, Marta Ma Varo-Martínez University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain
Background: In the last decades, there has been a decrease in the number of children walking to school. This trend has contributed to increased health problems among children, especially regarding obesity. Some governments and institutions are trying to reverse the situation by promoting the walking school buses (WSB) in elementary schools. However, in most cases, there are initial barriers to starting one, and when it works,
Oral Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 5 (2017) S3–S63
S35
there are no tools to easily assess its impact over time. Methods: A methodology for the implementation of WSB with the support of professional monitors has been tried at Tirso de Molina primary school in Córdoba (Spain). It has been based on the use of a mobile application to help volunteer families to organize the WSB and to record attendances automatically. An initial survey was carried out, which are allowed to know the students transport mode, to locate the interested families and to design the routes. During the first few weeks, a monitor guided the groups twice a week, and the volunteer parents did it the rest of days. The monitor trained volunteers in the use of the application and helped them to reduce the initial barriers. Once this support finished, the volunteer organization remained. Participation data has been automatically collected during thirteen weeks. These data have been analyzed together with those of a final satisfaction survey for participating families. Results: About 20% of the students of the school have participated in the WSB. Of the participants, 38% have totally or partially shifted from motorized transport modes to walk. Participating families have valued the WSB very positively. The main benefits reported by them have been the increase of available time and the reduction of difficulties in the family organization. Also, 62% have reported that their child is more active after participating in the WSB. Conclusions: It has been verified that this low cost and easily replicable methodology can be effective to increase the number of children who walk daily to school, and therefore to increase their physical activity. Thanks to the use of support monitors in the first few weeks, typical barriers in the implementation of these initiatives have been overcome, such as the difficulty of recruiting volunteers. The mobile application has contributed to reduce the fear of the families to the autonomous displacement of the child. To be successful in these implementations, more focus on family organization difficulties is needed. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.05.320
Research 2015 Personal Exposure to Ultrafine Particles According to Different Environments and Modes of Transport in Schoolchildren: Results from a Spanish Cohort in Valencia n,
Amparo Ferrero 1,2, Marisa Estarlich 1,2, Amparo Cases 1,2, Daniel Lozano 1, Silvia Gimeno 1,2, Ana Esplugues 1,2, Carmen Iñiguez 1,2, Ferran Ballester 1,2 1
Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO-Universitat Jaume I-Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain 2 Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
Background: Combustion, especially in diesel engines, emits a complex mixture of gases and particles that could be harmful for the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Daily personal exposure to the smallest particulate matter (less than 0.1 mm and usually called nanoparticles or ultrafine particles – UFP) has been studied to a lesser extent compared to coarser particles. In this study we aim to assess personal exposure to UFP in different environments and transport modes among schoolchildren from a Spanish birth-cohort in the province of Valencia. Methods: The study population consisted of 114 children aged 10-11 years. For each of them, personal exposure to UFP was measured continuously during two successive school days (24 hours) by means of a small backpack equipped with a UFP active sampler (DISCmini). The first day, a technician delivered the required material to the child’s home and instructed them on the monitoring period. The second day, families came to the health center where children underwent health examinations and parents answered questionnaires about time-activity patterns, sociodemographic factors, and other exposures. Median UFP exposure levels (numbers of particles per cm3 – N/cm3– were obtained for the overall period, for different environments (at home and school) and during journeys by different modes of transport (active transport – walking or cycling – or passive transport – car, bus, metro or tram). Results: Around 90% (N ¼101) of the schoolchildren had valid exposure data (at least at home and school). Mean monitoring time was 24 hours [range: 22-27 hours]. Participants spent 15 hours at home, 6 hours at school, 28 minutes in active transport, and 60 minutes in passive transport on average during the monitoring
Oral Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 5 (2017) S3–S63
Research 2000 Smart Transport Systems: Planning and Designing Transport Systems to Support Public Health n
Ghassan Abu-Lebdeh
American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Background: In the context of city operations and management, smart generally implies“…turning to technology to better connect our communities, improving citizen services”, and, more importantly, finding more intelligent ways to manage city resources and assets. It is a common notion that a city transportation system is a critical asset that must be intelligently managed to enable a better quality of life. It is less clear, however, that a city transportation system is in fact a public health tool and enabler. A transportation system, though, is not just the physical system it is; it is the integration of several activities some of which involve physical assets while other involve policies, standards and norms, that take place over long time span and involve significant resources including technology. Catering for public health should be an integral part of the smart city movement and thinking. Methods: The paper first examines the different activities involved in putting together a transportation system, namely: Planning, Design, construction, Operations (management), Maintenance, and, in some cases, Decommissioning (henceforth PDCOMD), and then maps those activities to known public health outcomes. The paper notes that certain activities of the transport system development process are more suited to serve public health than others. For one, transportation system planning is fundamental to ensuring suitable integration of public health in the early stages of putting the transport system together. The operations activity is equally critical but historically—and to this day– seldom viewed or used as the public health tool it is. Results: This paper shows that “smart” as in integration of information and communication technology to improve efficiency of the transportation system may or may not serve public health; public health considerations in some cases require the calming/slowing down and spatial shifting– thus the appearance of inefficiency– of certain elements of the transportation system. Alternatively, the notion of efficiency as applied to transportation systems may need to be modified to explicitly incorporate aspects of public health. Conclusions: The now trendy notion that information sensing, connectivity, and computation form the backbone of smart cities is questioned. The paper presents an alternate framework where public health is made integral to the notion of smart cities through explicit consideration and integration in key transportation system activities. Adopting an encompassing definition of “health” and “healthy” is vital. Among the many transport system activities, the paper identifies two, planning and operating, where public health consideration is particularly consequential. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.05.319
Research 2013 Evaluation of a Mobile App-Based Methodology Used to Boost Volunteer Participation in Walking School Buses n
Pedro Pérez-Martín , Gerardo Pedrós, Pilar Martínez-Jiménez, Marta Ma Varo-Martínez University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain
Background: In the last decades, there has been a decrease in the number of children walking to school. This trend has contributed to increased health problems among children, especially regarding obesity. Some governments and institutions are trying to reverse the situation by promoting the walking school buses (WSB) in elementary schools. However, in most cases, there are initial barriers to starting one, and when it works,
Oral Abstracts / Journal of Transport & Health 5 (2017) S3–S63
S35
there are no tools to easily assess its impact over time. Methods: A methodology for the implementation of WSB with the support of professional monitors has been tried at Tirso de Molina primary school in Córdoba (Spain). It has been based on the use of a mobile application to help volunteer families to organize the WSB and to record attendances automatically. An initial survey was carried out, which are allowed to know the students transport mode, to locate the interested families and to design the routes. During the first few weeks, a monitor guided the groups twice a week, and the volunteer parents did it the rest of days. The monitor trained volunteers in the use of the application and helped them to reduce the initial barriers. Once this support finished, the volunteer organization remained. Participation data has been automatically collected during thirteen weeks. These data have been analyzed together with those of a final satisfaction survey for participating families. Results: About 20% of the students of the school have participated in the WSB. Of the participants, 38% have totally or partially shifted from motorized transport modes to walk. Participating families have valued the WSB very positively. The main benefits reported by them have been the increase of available time and the reduction of difficulties in the family organization. Also, 62% have reported that their child is more active after participating in the WSB. Conclusions: It has been verified that this low cost and easily replicable methodology can be effective to increase the number of children who walk daily to school, and therefore to increase their physical activity. Thanks to the use of support monitors in the first few weeks, typical barriers in the implementation of these initiatives have been overcome, such as the difficulty of recruiting volunteers. The mobile application has contributed to reduce the fear of the families to the autonomous displacement of the child. To be successful in these implementations, more focus on family organization difficulties is needed. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.05.320
Research 2015 Personal Exposure to Ultrafine Particles According to Different Environments and Modes of Transport in Schoolchildren: Results from a Spanish Cohort in Valencia n,
Amparo Ferrero 1,2, Marisa Estarlich 1,2, Amparo Cases 1,2, Daniel Lozano 1, Silvia Gimeno 1,2, Ana Esplugues 1,2, Carmen Iñiguez 1,2, Ferran Ballester 1,2 1
Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO-Universitat Jaume I-Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain 2 Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain
Background: Combustion, especially in diesel engines, emits a complex mixture of gases and particles that could be harmful for the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Daily personal exposure to the smallest particulate matter (less than 0.1 mm and usually called nanoparticles or ultrafine particles – UFP) has been studied to a lesser extent compared to coarser particles. In this study we aim to assess personal exposure to UFP in different environments and transport modes among schoolchildren from a Spanish birth-cohort in the province of Valencia. Methods: The study population consisted of 114 children aged 10-11 years. For each of them, personal exposure to UFP was measured continuously during two successive school days (24 hours) by means of a small backpack equipped with a UFP active sampler (DISCmini). The first day, a technician delivered the required material to the child’s home and instructed them on the monitoring period. The second day, families came to the health center where children underwent health examinations and parents answered questionnaires about time-activity patterns, sociodemographic factors, and other exposures. Median UFP exposure levels (numbers of particles per cm3 – N/cm3– were obtained for the overall period, for different environments (at home and school) and during journeys by different modes of transport (active transport – walking or cycling – or passive transport – car, bus, metro or tram). Results: Around 90% (N ¼101) of the schoolchildren had valid exposure data (at least at home and school). Mean monitoring time was 24 hours [range: 22-27 hours]. Participants spent 15 hours at home, 6 hours at school, 28 minutes in active transport, and 60 minutes in passive transport on average during the monitoring