Evaluation of a Massachusetts physical activity policy for child care

马萨诸塞州儿童保育体育活动政策的评估

• 批准号: 8190287
• 负责人: Sara Elizabeth Benjamin-Neelon
• 金额: $ 31.4万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8190287
• 关键词: 5 year old; Address; Adopted; Affect; Age; Alaska; Arizona; Attitude; Belief; Boston; California; Cardiovascular Physiology; Caring; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Chicago; Child; Child Care; Cities; Country; Data; Data Collection; Delaware; District of Columbia; Effectiveness; Evaluation; Exercise; Federal Government; Foundations; Funding; Health; Home environment; Hour; Individual; Intervention; Licensing; Life; Massachusetts; Measures; Motor Skills; Natural experiment; New York City; North Carolina; Nursery Schools; Obesity; Physical activity; Play; Policies; Policy Maker; Pre-Post Tests; Prevention approach; Provider; Recommendation; Research; Rhode Island; Sampling; Solutions; State Interests; Testing; Texas; Time; Wisconsin; Wood material; aged; base; combat; cost; design; disorder prevention; falls; improved; interest; medical schools; novel; obesity in children; obesity prevention; obesity risk; peer; racial and ethnic; response; trend

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Obesity is perhaps the greatest health threat facing the US, and policy-based prevention approaches must be part of the solution. In preschool-aged children, regular exercise decreases obesity risk, improves motor skills, and enhances cardiovascular function. With nearly three quarters of young children in some form of non- parental child care and 56% in center-based child care, the child care setting may be a key to reversing disturbing trends in physical activity and obesity. Massachusetts (MA) recently implemented a new policy requiring 60 minutes of daily physical activity for all children in child care. A narrow window of opportunity now exists to evaluate this new policy, which will affect over 2,000 child care centers caring for nearly 40,000 children in MA. We intend to leverage this natural experiment to assess the effectiveness of the new policy by measuring physical activity in children attending child care center before and after the policy takes effect, both in MA and Rhode Island (RI), a comparison state. Child care is not regulated by the federal government-each individual state is responsible for regulating its child care centers. Though 2 states, Delaware and Alaska, have recently enacted new policies requiring 60 minutes of daily physical activity for all children in child care, they have not been evaluated for effectiveness. The proposed study provides a unique opportunity to evaluate this physical activity policy. The primary aim of the study is to determine the extent to which the new policy in MA, compared with RI, increases physical activity in 3- to 5-year old children in child care. We will use a quasi-experimental two-group pre-test/post-test design to assess physical activity in a sample of children attending child care centers before and after the policy takes effect. This evaluation is already underway. We collected 3 rounds of pre-policy physical activity data over the course of 1.5 years (fall 2008, spring 2009, and fall 2009). We focused our data collection efforts on Boston, MA and Providence, RI and measured physical activity in a sample of children attending 40 child care centers (20 per city). We collected both observation (n=360 children) and accelerometer (n=41 children) data to assess the physical activity levels of children, focusing on total minutes children engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity. In this proposal, we seek funding to support post- policy physical activity data collection to complete our evaluation of this natural experiment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Policy approaches to combat childhood obesity in the child care setting can have broad reach, affect children from varied racial, ethnic, and socio-demographic backgrounds, and be low-cost to implement. Through this study, we hope to provide evidence to policy-makers on the effectiveness of a state physical activity policy for licensed child care facilities. If effective, this policy could help reverse trends in rates of childhood obesity in Massachusetts and across the country.

描述（由申请人提供）：肥胖可能是美国面临的最大健康威胁，基于政策的预防方法必须成为解决方案的一部分。对于学龄前儿童，定期锻炼可以降低肥胖风险，提高运动技能，并增强心血管功能。由于近四分之三的幼儿接受某种形式的非父母托儿服务，56% 的幼儿接受中心托儿服务，因此托儿环境可能是扭转体力活动和肥胖这一令人不安的趋势的关键。马萨诸塞州 (MA) 最近实​​施了一项新政策，要求所有托儿所儿童每天进行 60 分钟的体力活动。现在评估这项新政策的机会有限，它将影响马萨诸塞州照顾近 40,000 名儿童的 2,000 多个托儿中心。我们打算利用这一自然实验来评估新政策的有效性，方法是测量政策生效前后在马萨诸塞州和罗德岛州（罗德岛州）就读托儿中心的儿童的体力活动。儿童保育不受联邦政府监管——每个州都有责任监管其儿童保育中心。尽管特拉华州和阿拉斯加州这两个州最近颁布了新政策，要求所有托儿所儿童每天进行 60 分钟的体育活动，但尚未对其有效性进行评估。拟议的研究为评估这项身体活动政策提供了独特的机会。该研究的主要目的是确定与 RI 相比，马萨诸塞州的新政策在多大程度上增加了托儿所 3 至 5 岁儿童的体力活动。我们将采用准实验性的两组前测/后测设计来评估政策生效前后就读托儿中心的儿童样本的身体活动情况。这项评估已经在进行中。我们收集了 1.5 年间的 3 轮政策实施前的身体活动数据（2008 年秋季、2009 年春季和 2009 年秋季）。我们的数据收集工作主要集中在马萨诸塞州波士顿和罗德岛州普罗维登斯，并测量了 40 个托儿中心（每个城市 20 个）就读的儿童样本的身体活动情况。我们收集了观察数据（n=360 名儿童）和加速度计数据（n=41 名儿童）来评估儿童的体力活动水平，重点关注儿童从事中度至剧烈体力活动的总分钟数。在本提案中，我们寻求资金来支持政策后身体活动数据收集，以完成我们对这一自然实验的评估。 公共卫生相关性：在儿童保育环境中对抗儿童肥胖的政策方法可以具有广泛的影响力，影响来自不同种族、民族和社会人口背景的儿童，并且实施成本较低。通过这项研究，我们希望为政策制定者提供证据，证明国家针对有执照的儿童保育机构的体育活动政策的有效性。如果有效，这项政策可能有助于扭转马萨诸塞州和全国儿童肥胖率的趋势。