Keyword: Physical activity

Evaluating the Quality of Child-Care Nutrition, Physical Activity and Screen-Time Practices to Inform Policies to Prevent Childhood Obesity

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Prior research evaluating children’s diets and physical activity report the need for improvements to ensure their daily nutrition and activity needs are met while in child-care settings. Limited research has examined nutrition and physical activity policies of child-care programs. This study will evaluate the quality of these policies in relation to observed practices, staff awareness More

Adequate (or Adipose?) Yearly Progress: Assessing the Effect of No Child Left Behind on Children’s Obesity. Working Paper 16873

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This paper discusses how accountability pressures for schools to improve test score outcomes implemented under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may affect children’s obesity. Using a unique dataset of Arkansas schools that merged school-level information on test scores, obesity, and other demographic information, researchers found that NCLB accountability rules may have unintended negative consequences for More

Survey of Child Care Providers of 2-5 Year Old Children

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The survey was designed to be self-completed by child-care providers of 2-5 year old children at preschools, centers or family daycare homes. Adapted from the NAP SACC tool validated by Benjamin et al (2007), it assesses practices related to both feeding (28 items) and physical activity (13 items). Added was a frequency checklist of 21 More

Relative Contribution of Energy Intake and Energy Expenditure to Childhood Obesity: A Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research

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Understanding the relative importance of overconsumption and physical inactivity to excess weight gain among children and adolescents can contribute to the development and evaluation of interventions and policies to reduce childhood obesity. However, there has been debate on whether energy intake or energy expenditure is the dominant contributor to childhood obesity. This review article evaluated More

Wellness School Assessment Tool

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The Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT) is an online evaluation of school wellness policies that address nutrition education and promotion, physical activity/physical education, school meals and competitive foods. It is the first instrument of its kind, providing a quantitative assessment that can be used to track progress over time.

Lessons from Pennsylvania’s Mixed Response to Federal School Wellness Law

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This article examines Pennsylvania’s response to the Child Nutrition and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Reauthorization Act of 2004. The analysis reveals that improvements were made to the nutritional quality of a la carte food choices offered in conjunction with school meal programs, according to respondents. However, the implementation of wellness policies in Pennsylvania was More

A Public Health Perspective on Healthy Lifestyles and Public-Private Partnerships for Global Childhood Obesity Prevention

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This commentary uses a public health perspective to review the concept of healthy lifestyles for prevention of childhood obesity and explore how healthy-lifestyle initiatives are promoted through public-private partnerships. Healthy lifestyles encourage individuals and populations to consume a nutritionally balanced, diverse diet and to engage in regular physical activity to achieve and maintain health and More

Assessing Changes in Regulations at Chicago Child-Care Facilities to Prevent Childhood Obesity

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In the fall of 2009, the Chicago Board of Health will adopt changes to child-care regulations intended to improve nutrition standards, establish minimum time requirements for physical activity and set maximum time requirements for screentime. During a two-year voluntary phase-in period child-care providers will receive education and training to facilitate compliance. This study will evaluate More

Program Practices: An Investigation of Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Standards and Practices on Out-of-School-Time Programs

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In the US, 6.5 million children attend out-of-school time (OST) programs annually, participating in roughly three hours per day of activities typically including homework, snack and gross motor play. The specific aims of this study are to: (1) build capacity for obesity prevention in OST by infusing rigorous science-based guidelines into the National Afterschool Association More

Preventing Obesity in the Child Care Setting: Evaluating State Regulations

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This report evaluates states’ healthy eating and physical activity regulations for two types of child care facilities: child-care centers and child-care homes. To determine states’ performance, experts first compiled a list of top ten healthy eating and top ten physical activity regulations, then compared this list against existing child-care regulations for the 50 United States, More