Evaluation of a Massachusetts physical activity policy for child care

描述(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是解决方案的一部分。在学龄前儿童中，经常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育儿，56%的幼儿接受以中心为基础的托儿，托儿环境可能是扭转身体活动和肥胖令人不安趋势的关键。马萨诸塞州(马萨诸塞州)最近实施了一项新政策，要求所有托儿所的儿童每天进行60分钟的身体活动。现在有一个很小的机会来评估这项新政策，它将影响马萨诸塞州2000多个照顾近40,000名儿童的托儿中心。我们打算利用这一自然实验来评估新政策的有效性，方法是在马萨诸塞州和罗德岛(RI)这两个比较州，通过测量政策生效前后在托儿中心的儿童的体力活动来评估新政策的有效性。儿童保育不受联邦政府的监管--每个州都负责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，要求所有托儿所的儿童每天进行60分钟的身体活动，但这些政策的有效性尚未得到评估。拟议的研究为评估这一体力活动政策提供了一个独特的机会。这项研究的主要目的是确定与RI相比，MA的新政策在多大程度上增加了3至5岁托儿所儿童的体力活动。我们将使用准实验两组前测/后测设计来评估政策生效前后在托儿所的儿童样本中的体力活动。这项评估已经在进行中。我们收集了三轮政策出台前的体力活动数据，历时一年半(2008年秋季、2009年春季和2009年秋季)。我们的数据收集工作集中在马萨诸塞州的波士顿和RI的普罗维登斯，并对40个托儿中心(每个城市20个)的儿童进行了体力活动测量。我们收集了观察数据(360名儿童)和加速计数据(41名儿童)，以评估儿童的体力活动水平，重点是儿童从事中等到剧烈体力活动的总分钟数。在这项提案中，我们寻求资金支持政策制定后的体力活动数据收集，以完成我们对这一自然实验的评估。

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.