Associação entre a distância da residência de estudantes e o deslocamento ativo até a universidade

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the association between the distance from student’s residence and active commuting to the university. Methods: Cross-sectional study, conducted in 2015, attended by 63 students of the Physical Education course at a public university from Curitiba-PR city. The distance from the residence to the university was computed from the self-reported addresses, the routes established with Google Earth and the distances computed by the ArcGIS 10.3.1 software. The distance from the residence to the university was categorized as "≤5 km" and "> 5 km". The students were asked about the type of transportation/commuting used to go to and/or return from the university in the last seven days. Participants who reported going to and/or returning from university walking and/or cycling at least one day a week were considered active on the commute. The association between the variables was tested with Poisson regression, adjusted for age and socioeconomic level, and the level of significance maintained at 5%. Results: Only 35% of the participants perform active commuting to the university. It was found an inverse association between the distance from the residence to the university with the active commuting (RP: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.15-0.84, p = 0.018). Conclusion: The results suggest that the distance of university students' residence is associated with the active commuting to the university. The prevalence of those who commute actively is greater among those who live less than five kilometers away from the university.