Developmental trends in young children's device-measured physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of developmental trends in meeting age-specific 24-hour movement behaviour guidelines is lacking. This study describes developmental trends in device-measured physical activity and sedentary time over a three-year period among Western Australian children aged two to seven years, including differences between boys and girls. The proportion of children meeting age-specific physical activity guidelines before and after they transition to full-time school was also examined. METHODS: Data from waves 1 and 2 of the Play Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) cohort study were used (analysis n = 1217). Physical activity and sedentary time were measured by accelerometry at ages two to five (preschool, wave 1) and ages five to seven (commenced full-time school, wave 2). Accelerometer data were processed using a validated machine-learning physical activity classification model. Daily time spent in sedentary behaviour, energetic play (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)), total physical activity, and meeting physical activity guidelines were analysed using linear and generalised linear mixed-effects models with age by sex interaction terms. RESULTS: All movement behaviours changed significantly with increasing age, and trends were similar in boys and girls. Total daily physical activity increased from age two to five then declined to age seven. Mean daily total physical activity exceeded 180 min/day from ages two to five. Daily energetic play increased significantly from age two to seven, however, was below 60 min/day at all ages except for seven-year-old boys. Daily sedentary time decreased to age five then increased to age seven but remained lower than at age two. All two-year-olds met their age-specific physical activity guideline, decreasing to 5% of girls and 6% of boys at age four. At age seven, 46% of boys and 35% of girls met their age-specific physical activity guideline. CONCLUSIONS: Young children's energetic play and total physical activity increased with age, but few children aged three to seven met the energetic play (MVPA) guideline. Interventions should focus on increasing children's energetic play in early childhood. Clearer guidance and strategies are needed to support young children as they change developmentally and as they transition from one age-specific movement guideline to the next.

Physical Activity-Related Practices and Psychosocial Factors of Childcare Educators: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Limited research investigates early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators' involvement in promoting physical activity. The aim was to identify distinct profiles based on physical activity-related practices and psychosocial factors in ECEC educators and examine how they relate to the amount of time allocated to children's physical activity. A secondary analysis of educator-reported survey data from the Play Active study was undertaken. Educators (n = 532) reported on four practices and four psychosocial subscales adapted from the Environment and Policy Evaluation and Observation relating to the provision of physical activity in childcare. Latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct groups of educators based on their practices and psychosocial factors. Logistic regression analysed associations between latent profiles and educator-reported time provided for children's physical activity. Five profiles of educators' physical activity-related practices and psychosocial factors were identified. Profiles with higher practice scores also had higher psychosocial scores. Educators in profiles characterised by higher scores had greater odds of meeting the best practice guidelines for daily time allocated to children for total physical activity and energetic play. This study highlights interventions which address multiple educator behaviour change determinants to improve children's physical activity in childcare.

Longitudinal effects of dog ownership, dog acquisition, and dog loss on children's movement behaviours: findings from the PLAYCE cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Regular physical activity is important for children's physical and mental health, yet many children do not achieve recommended amounts of physical activity. Dog ownership has been associated with increased physical activity in children, however, there have been no longitudinal studies examining this relationship. This study used data from the Play Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) cohort study to examine the longitudinal effects of dog ownership status on children's movement behaviours. METHODS: Change in dog ownership from preschool (wave 1, age 2-5) to fulltime school (wave 2, age 5-7) was used as a natural experiment with four distinct dog ownership groups: continuing non-dog owners (n = 307), continuing dog owners (n = 204), dog acquired (n = 58), and dog loss (n = 31; total n = 600). Daily movement behaviours, including physical activity, sedentary time, sleep, and screen time, were measured using accelerometry and parent-report surveys. Differences between groups over time and by sex were tested using linear mixed effects regression models. RESULTS: Girls who acquired a dog increased their light intensity activities and games by 52.0 min/day (95%CI 7.9, 96.0) and girls who lost a dog decreased their light intensity activities and games by 62.1 min/day (95%CI -119.3, -4.9) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who acquired a dog increased their unstructured physical activity by 6.8 (95%CI 3.2, 10.3) and 7.1 (95%CI 3.9, 10.3) occasions/week, compared to no changes among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who lost a dog reduced their unstructured physical activity by 10.2 (95%CI -15.0, -5.3) and 7.7 (95%CI -12.0, -3.5) occasions/week. Girls who lost a dog decreased their total physical activity by 46.3 min/day (95%CI -107.5, 14.8) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Continuing dog ownership was typically not associated with movement behaviours. Dog ownership group was not associated with changes in sleep and had mixed associations with screen time. CONCLUSION: The positive influence of dog ownership on children's physical activity begins in early childhood and differs by child sex. Further research should examine the specific contributions dog-facilitated physical activity makes to children's overall physical activity, including the intensity and duration of dog walking and play.

Play Active physical activity policy intervention and implementation support in early childhood education and care: results from a pragmatic cluster randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Policy interventions to increase physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are effective in increasing physical activity among young children. However, a large proportion of ECEC services do not have nor implement a physical activity policy. Play Active is an evidence-informed physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to enable ECEC services to successfully implement their policy. This study examined the effectiveness, implementation, and process outcomes of Play Active. METHODS: A pragmatic cluster randomised trial in 81 ECEC services in Perth, Western Australia was conducted in 2021. Services implemented their physical activity policy over a minimum of three months. The effectiveness outcomes were changes in educator practices related to daily time provided for total physical activity and energetic play. Implementation outcomes included changes in director- and educator-reported uptake of policy practices and director-reported uptake of high impact and low effort policy practices. Process evaluation outcomes included awareness, fidelity, reach, and acceptability of the intervention and implementation strategies. Analysis involved descriptive statistics and generalised linear mixed effects models. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in the uptake of director-reported policy practices (p = 0.034), but no change in the uptake of the subset of high impact and low effort policy practices. Intervention group educators reported high awareness of the Play Active policy recommendations (90%). Play Active acceptability was high among educators (83%) and directors (78%). Fidelity and reach were high for most implementation support strategies (> 75%). There were no significant changes in the amount of physical activity or energetic play educators provided to children or in the proportion of educators providing the policy recommended ≥ 180 min of physical activity/day or ≥ 30 min of energetic play/day for intervention compared to wait-listed comparison services. CONCLUSIONS: Play Active resulted in significantly higher uptake of physical activity practices. However, there was no change in the amount of physical activity provided to children, which may be explained by the relatively short policy implementation period. Importantly, Play Active had high awareness, fidelity, reach, and acceptability. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of Play Active over longer implementation periods and its scalability potential. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (reference number 12620001206910, registered 13/11/2020, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=378304&isReview=true ).