The Effect of a School-Based Intervention on Children’s Cycling Knowledge, Mode of Commuting and Perceived Barriers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

 The low rates of active commuting to/from school in Spain, especially by bike, and thewide range of cycling interventions in the literature show that this is a necessary research subject. Theaims of this study were: (1) to assess the feasibility of a school-based cycling intervention programfor adolescents, (2) to analyse the effectiveness of a school-based cycling intervention program on therates of cycling and other forms of active commuting to/from school (ACS), and perceived barriers toactive commuting in adolescents. A total of 122 adolescents from Granada, Jaén and Valencia (Spain)participated in the study. The cycling intervention group participated in a school-based interventionprogram to promote cycling to school during Physical Education (PE) sessions in order to analyse thechanges in the dependent variables at baseline and follow up of the intervention. Wilcoxon, Signsand McNemar tests were undertaken. The association of the intervention program with commutingbehaviour, and perceived barriers to commuting, were analysed by binary logistic regression. Therewere improvements in knowledge at follow-up and the cycling skill scores were medium-low. Therates of cycling to school and active commuting to/from school did not change, and only the “builtenvironment (walk)” barrier increased in the cycling group at follow-up. School-based interventionsmay be feasibly effective tools to increase ACS behaviour, but it is necessary to implement a longerperiod and continue testing further school-based cycling interventions.