Search
High levels of sedentary behaviour are associated with poor child health outcomes such as obesity. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are a key intervention setting. Most ECEC policy-based interventions focus on children's nutrition and physical activity with few aimed at children's sedentary behaviour.
Food environments are significant drivers of obesity and diet-related diseases, making them key targets for interventions that support healthier food choices. The role of Local Government Authorities is pivotal in shaping community food environments.
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.
Many children do not accumulate sufficient physical activity for good health and development at early childhood education and care (ECEC). This study examined the association between ECEC organizational readiness and implementation fidelity of an ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention.
A substantial body of literature points to the educational and social benefits of school breakfast programs. Most high-income countries provide free or subsidized school breakfasts to support disadvantaged children. Australia does not have a nationally-funded school meal program. Instead, charitable organizations offer school breakfast programs on a voluntary basis, often with funding support from state/territory governments.
This study systematically reviewed Australian literature to determine if an association exists between geospatial exposure to food outlets and diet, health or weight status. Recommendations for future research are provided.
Genomic sequencing in congenital heart disease (CHD) patients often discovers novel genetic variants, which are classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Functional analysis of each VUS is required in specialised laboratories, to determine whether the VUS is disease causative or not, leading to lengthy diagnostic delays.
Previous studies showed that unfavourable weather conditions discourage physical activity. However, it remains unclear whether unfavourable weather conditions have a differential impact on physical activity in children compared with adults.
This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to explore adolescent girls’ perceptions of sexualized images they typically find when using social media. Twenty-four participants aged 14–17 years described sexualized images of females as normalized on social media. The interplay between gendered and social norms that endorsed and rewarded girls for posting sexualized images was seen to influence an expectation for girls to conform with their peers and post such images of themselves.
This study adds to the current literature by using a novel device-based method to explore where preschool children are physically active outside of home and childcare settings. This study combined accelerometry with geospatial data to explore the influence of the environment on preschool children's physical activity by objectively identifying the locations where preschool children engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) within and outside of their neighborhood.