Munch and Move: evaluation of a preschool healthy eating and movement skill program

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

Early childhood services have been identified as a key setting for promoting healthy eating and physical activity as a means of preventing overweight and obesity. However, there is limited evidence on effective nutrition and physical activity programs in this setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Munch and Move, a low-intensity, state-wide, professional development program designed to support early childhood professionals to promote healthy eating and physical activity among children in their care.

Methods

The evaluation involved 15 intervention and 14 control preschools (n = 430; mean age 4.4 years) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and was based on a randomised-control design with pre and post evaluation of children's lunchbox contents, fundamental movement skills (FMS), preschool policies and practices and staff attitudes, knowledge and confidence related to physical activity, healthy eating and recreational screen time.

Results

At follow up, FMS scores for locomotor, object control and total FMS score significantly improved by 3.4, 2.1 and 5.5 points more (respectively) in the intervention group compared with the control group (P < 0.001) and the number of FMS sessions per week increased by 1.5 (P = 0.05). The lunchbox audit showed that children in the intervention group significantly reduced sweetened drinks by 0.13 serves (i.e., 46 ml) (P = 0.05).

Conclusion

The findings suggest that a low intensity preschool healthy weight intervention program can improve certain weight related behaviours. The findings also suggest that change to food policies are difficult to initiate mid-year and potentially a longer implementation period may be required to determine the efficacy of food policies to influence the contents of preschoolers lunchboxes.

Related collections

Most cited references 17

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Preventing childhood obesity: what works?

L Birch, A K Ventura (2009)

Rates of overweight in North American children and adolescents have increased dramatically since the 1970s. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and calls for prevention and treatment programs to reverse this trend have been made. However, the evidence base needed for effective action is still incomplete, especially for childhood obesity prevention programs. This paper focuses on primary prevention of childhood obesity and has three aims: (1) to briefly describe current primary prevention approaches for childhood obesity and the evidence for their impact; (2) to elucidate promising, but untested intervention strategies using an ecological framework and evidence from experimental and epidemiological research on factors influencing children's eating and weight status; and (3) to introduce a multiphase strategy for screening intervention components and building and evaluating potent interventions for childhood obesity. Most childhood obesity prevention programs have focused on school-aged children and have had little success. We suggest that, given these findings, prevention efforts should be expanded to explore other contexts in which children live as possible settings for intervention efforts, including the family and childcare settings. Given that 25% of preschool children are already overweight, intervening with children before school entry should be a priority. A review of experimental research on the developing controls of food intake in infancy and childhood suggests possible intervention strategies, focusing on parenting and aspects of the feeding environment. Epidemiological findings point to even earlier modifiable risk factors, including gestational weight gain, maternal prepregnancy weight, and formula feeding. However, the potential impact of altering these risk factors remains to be evaluated. In response to this problem, we suggest a new, multiphase method for accomplishing this, including screening intervention components, refining intervention designs and confirming component efficacy to build and evaluate potent, optimized interventions.

0 comments Cited 121 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Fundamental movement skills among Australian preschool children.

Louise Hardy, Lesley King, Louise Farrell … (2010)

Early childhood is a critical period for the development of fundamental movement skills (FMS). Children who do not master FMS are more likely to experience failure in the motor domain and less likely to participate in sport and games during childhood and adolescence. Studies among primary school aged children report low levels of FMS mastery indicating the need to implement FMS programs during the preschool years. Cross-sectional study of 425 children attending preschools in the Sydney, Australia in 2008. FMS were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 including locomotor (run, gallop, hop, horizontal jump) and object control (strike, catch, kick overhand throw) skills. Data were analysed using linear regression and chi-squared analyses. Total locomotor score was higher among girls compared with boys (p<0.00); however only the hop was significantly different (p=0.01). Boys had higher total (p<0.00) and individual object control scores compared with girls, except the catch (p=0.6). The prevalence of mastery differed across each FMS. Girls generally had higher mastery of locomotor skills and boys had higher mastery of object control skills. These findings highlight the need to provide structured opportunities which facilitate children's acquisition of FMS, which may include providing gender separated games, equipment and spaces. That mastery of FMS is low in primary school children indicates the importance of early intervention programs in preschools. Preschools and child care centers hold promise as a key setting for implementing FMS programs.

0 comments Cited 93 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Healthy eating, activity and obesity prevention: a qualitative study of parent and child perceptions in Australia.

J. Williams, K Hesketh, Catherine Waters … (2005)

Preventative health strategies incorporating the views of target participants have improved the likelihood of success. This qualitative study aimed to elicit child and parent views regarding social and environmental barriers to healthy eating, physical activity and child obesity prevention programmes, acceptable foci, and appropriate modes of delivery. To obtain views across a range of social circumstances three demographically diverse primary schools in Victoria, Australia were selected. Children in Grades 2 (aged 7-8 years) and 5 (aged 10-11 years) participated in focus groups of three to six children. Groups were semi-structured using photo-based activities to initiate discussion. Focus groups with established parent groups were also conducted. Comments were recorded, collated, and themes extracted using grounded theory. 119 children and 17 parents participated. Nine themes emerged: information and awareness, contradiction between knowledge and behaviour, lifestyle balance, local environment, barriers to a healthy lifestyle, contradictory messages, myths, roles of the school and family, and timing and content of prevention strategies for childhood obesity. In conclusion, awareness of food 'healthiness' was high however perceptions of the 'healthiness' of some sedentary activities that are otherwise of benefit (e.g. reading) were uncertain. The contradictions in messages children receive were reported to be a barrier to a healthy lifestyle. Parent recommendations regarding the timing and content of childhood obesity prevention strategies were consistent with quantitative research. Contradictions in the explicit and implicit messages children receive around diet and physical activity need to be prevented. Consistent promotion of healthy food and activity choices across settings is core to population prevention programmes for childhood obesity.

0 comments Cited 87 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

Title: The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Publisher: BioMed Central

ISSN (Electronic): 1479-5868

Publication date Collection: 2010

Publication date (Electronic): 3 November 2010

Volume: 7

Page: 80

Affiliations

[1 ]Prevention Research Collaboration, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW Australia

Article

Publisher ID: 1479-5868-7-80

DOI: 10.1186/1479-5868-7-80

PMC ID: 2988057

PubMed ID: 21047434

SO-VID: d947e081-c999-42c5-8923-536ed6159596

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Munch and Move: evaluation of a preschool healthy eating and movement skill program

Read this article at

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Related collections

Karger: Nutrition and Dietetics

Most cited references 17

Preventing childhood obesity: what works?

Fundamental movement skills among Australian preschool children.

Healthy eating, activity and obesity prevention: a qualitative study of parent and child perceptions in Australia.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 262

Cited by 59

Most referenced authors 186