Authors:
Zaharah Mohd Yusoff,Dasimah Omar,Yusfida A.Abdullah,Adilla Nordin,Hafiz Arif,Sarah Kamaruddin,DOI NO:
https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.2019.03.00073Keywords:
Obesity,Healthy,Route to School,GIS,Abstract
The trend of overweight and obesity cases in developing countries in recent years have been particularly alarming as the cases are consistently on the rise. Improving the economy rate has resulted to the increasing number of overweight and obesity cases among adults and children in a family. Overweight and obesity have commonly been known to associate with eating habits and this belief is assimilated into the people for many years. However, recent studies suggest that the factors to the issue are extended to the convenience and comfort that modern technologies have provided which affects our lifestyle due to passive mobility. Therefore, it is important that the awareness of practicing healthy lifestyle is incorporated in young children. Although there are efforts towards this campaign such as organizing physical activities in school as a part of the curriculum, it is insufficient to burn enough calories. Thus, Healthy Routes to School (HTRS) concept is introduced as a strategy to cope with this issue by encouraging childhood walking so its positive effects on health can be benefited. The use of Geographic Information System (GIS) in this research is to monitor the distance and BMI classification, and to calculate the appropriate time taken for each mobility mode. The results were classified into four categories which are walking, public transport, parent vehicle, and cycling. Children that use parent vehicle and public transport contributed to 82.35% of overweight and obesity class while 17.65% were normal and underweight. In order to promote the HRTS concept, the distance and time taken were calculated to determine the most suitable and comfortable distance for walking and cycling to school.Refference:
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