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Dog ownership is common in families with children and could play a role in children's social-emotional development. This study used longitudinal data on dog ownership and changing dog ownership to investigate their effects on young children's social-emotional development.
Promoting healthy eating and physical activity in early childhood education and care is recommended within guidelines and supported by health promotion programs; however, implementation is suboptimal. Evidence suggests implementation within the sector varies over time; however, this has not been empirically examined in relation to implementation barriers.
Children are often exposed to unhealthy outdoor food advertisements during the school commute. This exposure can have negative public health consequences given childhood weight gain has been linked to the marketing of energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods. This study aimed to explore schoolchildren's lived experiences and attitudes towards outdoor advertising surrounding their schools.
Canada, Australia, the World Health Organization and other countries have released 24-hour movement guidelines for the early years which integrate physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep, focusing on supporting children to achieve a healthy 24-hour day. The guideline evidence synthesis, however, highlighted the dearth of high-quality evidence, particularly from large-scale studies.
Child poverty remains a major global concern and a child's experience of deprivation is heavily shaped by where they live and the stability of their local neighbourhood. This study examines frequencies and patterns of residential mobility in children and young people at a population level using novel geospatial techniques to assess how often their physical environment changes and to identify geographical variations in social mobility.
Children's physical activity and screen time behaviours impact their physical health and well-being. In Australia, less than half of children meet daily physical activity recommendations and only one-third meet daily screen time recommendations.
There is an urgent need for scalable interventions to promote physical activity in early childhood. An early childhood education and care physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies (Play Active) has been proposed for scale-up in Australia.
Developing dietary guidelines for lactating women presents significant challenges, due to limited evidence being available on their specific nutrient needs and the biological impacts of various dietary dimensions. Current dietary recommendations often rely on data from nonlactating women, leading to potential inaccuracies.
This study investigated adherence to Indonesia's Dietary Guidelines (IDG) among lactating women, examining related factors and association with nutrient intake adequacy, maternal and infant biomarkers, body mass index, and growth. Participants were lactating women (n = 220) from urban and rural West Java, Indonesia. Dietary intake (via 3-day weighed food records), anthropometry and blood samples were assessed. Adherence was evaluated using a scoring system tailored for IDG and adapted from the Healthy Eating Index to assess intake of food groups, sugar, salt, fat, water, coffee, and breakfast habits.
Physical activity is crucial for young children's health and development. Many young children do not meet the recommended 3 hours of daily physical activity, including 60 min of energetic play. Early childhood education and care (ECEC/childcare) is a key setting to intervene to improve children's physical activity. The Play Active programme is a scalable evidence-informed ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to improve educators' physical activity-related practices.