Healthy Lifestyles for Preschoolers: The Current Evidence

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Healthy Lifestyles for Preschoolers The Current
Evidence
Dr Rachel Jones Child Obesity Research
Centre University of Wollongong rachelj_at_uow.edu.au
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Outline

• Healthy Lifestyles
• The latest evidence
• Other influences
• What is being done?
• What are we doing?

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Healthy Lifestyles
???
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The latest evidence
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1. Children Nutrition and Physical Activity
Survey 2007

• 4487 children, 2 -16 years old
• Randomly selected across Australia
• Dietary intake, physical activity and weight
  status

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2. Growing up in Australia

• 10,000 children across Australia
• Two cohort lt12 months old, 4-5 years olds
• 6-7 year follow up

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Dietary Intake
Kids learn food habits at an early age - so it's
important to teach your young ones the value of a
healthy and well balanced diet. If they're
eating the right foods, they'll also be getting
the nutrients they need to stay fit, active and
alert.(unknown)
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Australian Recommendations
Children 2 - 3 years 1 serve fruit 2
serve vegetables 3 serves
cereals lt10 E from SF Children 3 - 5
years 1 serve fruit 2 serve
vegetables 3 serves cereals lt10 E
from SF
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What is happening in Australia?
N1000
2007 National childrens nutrition and physical
activity survey
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What is happening in Australia?
N2000
2007 National childrens nutrition and physical
activity survey
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What is happening in Australia?

• Younger children (2-3 years) generally consumed
  the greatest amount of fruit and the older
  children (14-16 years) consumed the least
• Older children reported eating almost twice the
  amount of vegetables compared to younger children

2007 National childrens nutrition and physical
activity survey
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Physical Activity
Physical activity is the ultimate magic pill.
Small steps add up to big results. (Melissa
Johnson, President's Council on Physical Fitness
and Sports)
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Australian Recommendations
Children lt 1 year floor based Children 1 - 3
years gt 3 hrs /day Children 3 - 5 years gt
3 hrs /day
National Physical Activity Guidelines, in press
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What is happening in Australia?
2007 National childrens nutrition and physical
activity survey
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Television viewing
TV. If kids are entertained by two letters,
imagine the fun they'll have with twenty-six.
Open your child's imagination. Open a book.
(Unknown)
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Australian Recommendations
Children lt 2 years NO Television Children 3 -
5 years lt1 hr / day Children gt 5
years lt2hrs / day
National Physical Activity Guidelines, in press
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What is happening in Australia?
N1000 9-13yrs
2007 National childrens nutrition and physical
activity survey
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What is happening in Australia?
N266
Okely et al., 2009
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Weight Status
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What is happening in Australia?
Wake et al., 2007
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Other influences?
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Food, nutrition and health are like a puzzle.
There are different pieces. Each of the them is
important but none tells the whole story. When
all the pieces come together, the puzzle of good
nutrition and health is solved.
Commonwealth of Australia 2003. Dietary
guidelines for children and adolescents in
Australia. Canberra NHMRC
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Community Characteristics
Parent Characteristics
Child Characteristics
Healthy Lifestyles
Diet
SB
PA
Davison and Birch, 2001
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Community Characteristics
Parent Characteristics
PA patterns
Parental intake
Child Characteristics
TV monitoring
Healthy Lifestyles
Weight status
Diet
SB
Gender
Age
PA
Food Preferences
Preference for PA
Family TV viewing
Davison and Birch, 2001
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Community Characteristics
Parent Characteristics
Lunch Programs
SES
PA patterns
Parental intake
Child Characteristics
Ethnicity
TV monitoring
Healthy Lifestyles
Weight status
Diet
SB
Work hours
Gender
Age
PA
Crime rates
Food Preferences
Preference for PA
Family TV viewing
Leisure time
Safety
School PE
Accessibility of facilities
Davison and Birch, 2001
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What is happening now?(Early childhood settings)
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(National Childcare Accreditation Council, 2008)
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Physical activity in Early childhood settings

• Study 1
• 493 3-5 year old children, 24 preschools
• 3 of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous
  activity
• 80 of time spent in sedentary activities
• Boys more active than girls
• 3-year olds more active than 4-5 year olds
• (Pate et al., 2008)

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Physical activity in Early childhood settings

• Study 2
• 3-5 year old children
• 3 of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous
  activity
• 8 of time spent in light activity
• 89 of time spent in sedentary activities
• (Brown et al., 2009)
• ?PA - Less fixed playground equipment, more
  portable playground equipment, lower use of
  electronic media, larger playgrounds, confidence
  of teacher (Dowda et al., 2009)

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Get up and Grow - Healthy eating and physical
activity guidelines for early childhood settings
The Project will develop evidence-based
guidelines and materials to support healthy
eating and physical activity in children
attending Early Childhood Education and Care
(ECEC) services such as child care, pre-school,
family day care, etc. The Guidelines will be
linked to the new National Quality Framework for
ECEC services that is expected to be introduced
from 1 July 2009.
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Physical activity recommendations for children
0-5 years
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What are we doing?
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Research Around Australia
INFANT (Victoria) HAPPY (Victoria) Time2bHealthy
(NSW) Jump Start (NSW) Kids at Play (ACT) Romp
and Chomp (Victoria) Young Kids (Adelaide and
Queensland)
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Jump Start

• Wants Simple, attractive, appropriate for
  age/number of children/staff
• Barriers Time, motivation (including
  confidence), equipment

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Jump Start
20 weeks, structured and unstructured, ongoing
professional development Equipment and resource
supplied
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Jump Start - FMS
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Jump Start
I think that it definitely should continuein
the last 6 months the children have just refined
their skills so much. I even had one parent say
to me six months ago my son couldnt hop and now
hes hopping everywhere, so you can see that its
a massive, massive difference that its
made its amazing the difference that weve
seen in the children, it really isI had no idea
what a difference it would make at the beginning,
I didnt think that it would make such a big
impact on the children, but it really has, its
been fantastic, and its good for them because
theyve gotten to a point with their skills now
that we think, ok, lets go a little bit further
and especially with the older ones, they really
just soaked it up and, it was just amazing to
watch
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The Time2bHealthy Program

• Wants Simple, easy, one-stop shop,
  evidence-based, diet and physical activity
• Barriers Time, distance to travel, childcare

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"Thank you for the program - it has been helpful,
especially learning for the first time about
recommended servings per day and serving sizes
for preschoolers. Also helpful were all the great
suggestions regarding indoor and outdoor
activities" "Congrats on putting together a
great program that will make a difference. It
has motivated me and I have learnt a lot about
games and the importance of decreasing screen
(TV/DVD) time"
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Questions?
Its never too early to start building healthy
habits.(unknown)