Health effects of children’s summer holiday programs (MEDLINE).

Abstract

Abstract The "summer holiday slide" has been documented in academic literature for more than a century, describing the reduction in academic achievement that children experience over the extended summer holiday period. More recently, attention has been turned to the impact of the extended summer holiday on other aspects of children's health and wellbeing. During school holidays, children spend more time in sedentary behaviours, particularly in screen-based activities, less physical activity and changes in sleep patterns. There is also evidence that the total daily energy intake of Australian children increases on non-school days due to a reduction in diet quality (more high sugar, high fat foods) and an increase in quantity of food consumed in comparison to a school day. The summer holidays are typically the longest school holiday period of the year, during which unhealthy patterns of behaviours can have the biggest cumulative impact when compared to the school year. The "Structured Day Hypothesis" posits that days filled with compulsory, planned and appropriately supervised activities, such as the school day, can somewhat control the obesogenic behaviours of children. During the summer holidays, summer programs may provide structures beneficial to the health of children. Further, there are unique challenges and concerns presented during school holidays for socially disadvantaged, low-income families including access to appropriate childcare, the ability to provide enrichment activities, financial pressures and access to quality food. Access to resources and positive experiences through the school holiday period may at least partially mitigate the extent to which disadvantage is associated with poorer health. Interventions that aid the development of healthy behaviour patterns (e.g. nutrition and physical activity) in early life may improve children's health and wellbeing in the short term as well as providing potential life-long impacts on quality of life. Summer programs are one such example and have been demonstrated effective in improving academic outcomes of children. Summer holiday programs may offer an avenue for intervention to close the high-low SES gaps in physical health as well as cognitive, social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing outcomes. A synthesis of the evidence regarding the impact of summer holiday interventions on outcomes related to mental and physical health and wellbeing will be useful in the design of interventions and policies to improve the health and wellbeing of children now and potentially addressing health inequality. Specific review questions: 1. What are the physical health effects of summer holiday programs on children and adolescents? 2. Do the effects differ based on child characteristics (e.g. socioeconomic disadvantage, age)? 3. Do the effects differ based on program characteristics (e.g. program content, duration)?