Abstract
Early childhood education settings are critical for promoting physical activity (PA) but intervention effects are often small. The aim of this study was to develop, test, and compare two approaches to increasing physical activity among preschoolers at child care centers: one focused on a teacher-led PA curriculum (Active Play!) and the other on increasing outdoor child-initiated free play time (Outdoor Play!). We conducted a matched-pair cluster-randomized study in 10 centers in and around Seattle, WA, USA (n = 97 children, mean age 4.6). Pre- and post-intervention data were collected from observations and accelerometers. At pre-intervention, 19% of Active Play! and 25% of Outdoor Play! children achieved >120 min/day of PA during child care. The total opportunity for PA increased in both interventions (Active Play! = 11 min/day; Outdoor Play! = 14 min/day), with the largest increase in outdoor child-initiated free playtime (Active Play! = 19 min/day; Outdoor Play! = 24 min/day). No changes in sedentary time, light or moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA) were observed in either intervention and there was no difference between interventions in the percentage of children attaining more than 120 min/day of PA. A small (<3 min/day) relative increase in teacher-led outdoor activity was observed in the Active Play! intervention. Both intervention strategies led to an increase in active play opportunities, predominantly outdoors, but neither was able to substantially increase the intensity and/or duration of children’s PA. Future studies are needed to better understand and inform sustainable approaches to increase PA in early learning settings.
Highlights
Engaging in sufficient physical activity (PA) and limiting sedentary behavior (SB) are important for the health and development of preschool children (3 to 5 years), including benefits in lower adiposity, cardiometabolic health, motor skill development, psychosocial health, and cognition [1,2,3,4]
The aim of this study was to test and compare two approaches to increasing total PA and decreasing sedentary time at child care centers, one which focused on increasing outdoor free play time (Outdoor Play!) and the other on a teacher-led PA curriculum (Active Play!)
Eight to fourteen children from one preschool classroom in each of the 10 centers were recruited to participate in the study
Summary
Engaging in sufficient physical activity (PA) and limiting sedentary behavior (SB) are important for the health and development of preschool children (3 to 5 years), including benefits in lower adiposity, cardiometabolic health, motor skill development, psychosocial health, and cognition [1,2,3,4]. Only approximately 50% of preschool children are meeting the US National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) [5] guidelines of at least 1 h of structured (teacher-led) and at least 1 h of unstructured (child-initiated) PA every day [6,7]. Given that the majority of preschool children in the US attend center-based child care [8], these settings offer critical intervention opportunities. Characteristics of child care centers, such as play equipment, outdoor time, and teacher practices have been associated with child PA [9,10,11,12,13,14]. Public Health 2019, 16, 4020; doi:10.3390/ijerph16204020 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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