Preschoolers' dietary behaviours: parents' perspectives.

PURPOSE: Preschoolers' dietary intake behaviours are described from the perspective of their parents. METHODS: A maximum variation sample of 71 parents of preschoolers participated in this qualitative study. Ten semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted. Two experienced moderators facilitated all focus groups, which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Strategies to ensure trustworthiness of the data were employed throughout the study. Two team members independently performed inductive content analysis. NVivo software was used to code the emerging themes. RESULTS: Parents identified food and food issues as key health-related behaviours among preschoolers. Parents discussed challenges to healthy eating, including time limitations and societal pressures, as well as methods for facilitating healthy food choices, including bribery, education, and being creative with food. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary intake is on the minds of preschoolers' parents. Unfortunately, some methods that parents currently use to promote healthy food choices may be more detrimental than beneficial for children in the long term. Parents' keen interest in their preschoolers' eating habits may make them particularly receptive to learning about and facilitating healthy choices in more behaviourally appropriate ways. Widespread educational messages about the benefits and detriments of various strategies to facilitate healthy eating among preschoolers therefore seem warranted.

Marketing a hard-to-swallow message: recommendations for the design of media campaigns to increase awareness about the risks of binge drinking.

BACKGROUND: Binge drinking, commonly defined as having more than five drinks on a single occasion, is a public health issue affecting two thirds of Canadian young adults between the ages of 19-24 years. To educate young adults about alcohol poisoning, a network of 16 Ontario Health Units developed and implemented a mass-media campaign. The focus of this article is to report on post-secondary students' perceptions about key media campaign strategies, elements and messages for future campaigns designed to increase awareness about the risks of binge drinking. METHODS: As part of a multi-method process evaluation, nine focus groups were facilitated to explore the young adults' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about binge drinking and the campaign messages. Participants were also asked to identify specific marketing messages and techniques that would increase their level of awareness about the risks of binge drinking. RESULTS: Participants recommended that campaigns be targeted towards parents and high school and post-secondary school students. Participants provided recommendations for the types of messages, images, and language they perceived would capture the attention of young adults. Television, posters and the internet were identified as key media channels for disseminating health information about the risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption. CONCLUSION: The problem of binge drinking is pervasive across Canadian campuses and students are largely unaware of the risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption. To reach this target population, it is important for future media campaign developers to utilize language, definitions, graphics and channels of communication to which this group relates.

Preschoolers' physical activity behaviours: parents' perspectives.

OBJECTIVES: To understand parents' perspectives of their preschoolers' physical activity behaviours. METHODS: A maximum variation sample of 71 parents explored their preschoolers' physical activity behaviours through 10 semi-structured focus group discussions. RESULTS: Parents perceived Canada's Physical Activity Guidelines for Children as inadequate; that their preschoolers get and need more than 30-90 minutes of activity daily; and that physical activity habits must be established during the preschool years. Nine barriers against and facilitators toward adequate physical activity were proposed: child's age, weather, daycare, siblings, finances, time, society and safety, parents' impact, and child's activity preferences. DISCUSSION: The need for education and interventions that address current barriers are essential for establishing physical activity as a lifestyle behaviour during early childhood and, consequently, helping to prevent both childhood and adulthood obesity.

Walk-in clinics in Ontario. An atmosphere of tension.

OBJECTIVE: To explore family practice (FP), emergency department (ED), and walk-in clinic (WIC) physicians' perceptions and experiences regarding the effect of walk-in clinics on Ontario's health care system. DESIGN: Qualitative method of focus groups. SETTING: Hamilton, London, and Toronto, Ont. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-three physicians participated in nine focus groups, each with four to nine participants. Family physicians, ED physicians, and WIC physicians attended separate focus groups. METHOD: Nine focus groups were conducted in three cities in Ontario. Physicians' opinions, perceptions, and experiences regarding the role and effect of WICs on Ontario's health care system were explored. Focus groups were audiotaped and comments transcribed verbatim. The qualitative data analysis program NUD*IST was used to organize the data during sequential thematic analysis. MAIN FINDINGS: Participants identified two key factors contributing to the evolution of WICs: patients' expectations for convenient health care and the perceived limited availability of family physicians. Participants thought these two related factors resulted in a gap in primary care services that WICs had filled. Throughout discussions, an atmosphere of tension permeated the focus groups. Tension seemed to arise from issues of duplication, competition, standards of practice and quality of care in WICs, the effect of environmental and personal factors on physicians' practice, and the practice philosophy adopted by WIC physicians. CONCLUSION: Both FP and ED participants acknowledged their contribution to the gap in primary care services. They appeared to attribute current problems in health care delivery to the perceived deficiencies of WICs. The outcome was a marked tension among participants.