Associations between active commuting, body fat, and body mass index: population based, cross sectional study in the United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine if promotion of active modes of travel is an effective strategy for obesity prevention by assessing whether active commuting (walking or cycling for all or part of the journey to work) is independently associated with objectively assessed biological markers of obesity.

Design

Cross sectional study of data from the wave 2 Health Assessment subsample of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). The exposure of interest, commuting mode, was self reported and categorised as three categories: private transport, public transport, and active transport.

Participants

The analytic samples (7534 for body mass index (BMI) analysis, 7424 for percentage body fat analysis) were drawn from the representative subsample of wave 2 respond

SUBMITTER: Flint E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4138353 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature