Does an active play standard change childcare physical activity and healthy eating policies? A natural policy experiment

In 2017, the provincial government of British Columbia (BC) implemented a mandatory policy outlining Active Play Standards (AP Standards) to increase physical activity (PA) levels, sedentary and motor skills among children attending licensed childcare centers. Concurrently, a capacity-building initi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health 2022-04, Vol.22 (1), p.687-687, Article 687
Main Authors: Tugault-Lafleur, Claire N, Naylor, Patti-Jean, Carson, Valerie, Faulkner, Guy, Lau, Erica Y, Wolfenden, Luke, Mâsse, Louise C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child
Child Care
Child Day Care Centers
Childcare
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diet, Healthy
Early years
Exercise
Food habits
Health aspects
Health Promotion
Healthy eating
Humans
Methods
Obesity in children
Obesity prevention
Physical activity
Policy
Policy change
Prevention
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Summary:In 2017, the provincial government of British Columbia (BC) implemented a mandatory policy outlining Active Play Standards (AP Standards) to increase physical activity (PA) levels, sedentary and motor skills among children attending licensed childcare centers. Concurrently, a capacity-building initiative was launched to help implement policies and practices supporting both PA and healthy eating (HE) in the early years. This study evaluated differences in center-level PA and HE policies and practices before and after the enforcement of the new provincial AP Standards. Using a repeat cross-sectional design, surveys were distributed to managers and staff of licensed childcare facilities serving children aged 2-5 years before (2016-2017 or 'time 1') and after (2018-2019 or 'time 2') implementation of the AP Standards across BC. The total sample included 1,459 respondents (910 and 549 respondents at time 1 and time 2, respectively). Hierarchical mixed effects models were used to examine differences in 9 and 7 PA/sedentary policies and practices, respectively, as well as 11 HE policies between time 1 and time 2. Models controlled for childcare size and area-level population size, education, and income. Compared to centers surveyed at time 1, centers at time 2 were more likely to report written policies related to: fundamental movement skills, total amount of Active Play (AP) time, staff-led AP, unfacilitated play/free play, total amount of outdoor AP time, limiting screen time, breaking up prolonged sitting, staff role modeling of PA, and training staff about PA (P 
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/s12889-022-13079-y