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The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), with assistance from multiple partners, stakeholders, and researchers, developed the first Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for the Early Years (aged 0-4 years). These national guidelines were created in response to an urgent call from public health, health care, child care, and fitness practitioners for healthy active living guidance for the early years. The guideline development process was informed by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument and the evidence assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The recommendations are informed by evidence from a systematic review that examined the relationships between physical activity and health indicators (healthy body weight, bone and skeletal health, motor skill development, psychosocial health, cognitive development, and cardio-metabolic disease risk factors) for three age groups (infants aged <1 year; toddlers aged 1-2 years; preschoolers aged 3-4 years). The new guidelines include a preamble to provide context, followed by the specific recommendations. The final guidelines benefitted from an extensive on-line consultation process with input from over 900 domestic and international stakeholders, end-users, and key informants. The final guideline recommendations state that for healthy growth and development, infants (aged <1 year) should be physically active several times daily - particularly through interactive floor-based play. Toddlers (aged 1-2 years) and preschoolers (aged 3-4 years) should accumulate at least 180 min of physical activity at any intensity spread throughout the day, including a variety of activities in different environments, activities that develop movement skills, and progression toward at least 60 min of energetic play by 5 years of age. More daily physical activity provides greater benefits.

BackgroundThe purpose of this review was to determine the most valid and reliable questions for targeting key modes of sedentary behaviour (SB) in a broad range of national and international health surveillance surveys. This was done by reviewing the SB modules currently used in population health surveys, as well as examining SB questionnaires that have performed well in psychometric testing.MethodsHealth surveillance surveys were identified via scoping review and contact with experts in the field. Previous systematic reviews provided psychometric information on pediatric questionnaires. A comprehensive search of four bibliographic databases was used to identify studies reporting psychometric information for adult questionnaires. Only surveys/studies published/used in English or French were included.ResultsThe review identified a total of 16 pediatric and 18 adult national/international surveys assessing SB, few of which have undergone psychometric testing. Fourteen pediatric and 35 adult questionnaires with psychometric information were included. While reliability was generally good to excellent for questions targeting key modes of SB, validity was poor to moderate, and reported much less frequently. The most valid and reliable questions targeting specific modes of SB were combined to create a single questionnaire targeting key modes of SB.DiscussionOur results highlight the importance of including SB questions in survey modules that are adaptable, able to assess various modes of SB, and that exhibit adequate reliability and validity. Future research could investigate the psychometric properties of the module we have proposed in this paper, as well as other questionnaires currently used in national and international population health surveys.

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), with assistance from multiple partners, stakeholders, and researchers, developed the first Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years (aged 0-4 years). These national guidelines are in response to a call from health and health care professionals, child care providers, and fitness practitioners for guidance on sedentary behaviour in the early years. The guideline development process followed the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II framework. The recommendations are informed by evidence from a systematic review that examined the relationships between sedentary behaviour (predominantly screen time) and health indicators (healthy body weight, bone and skeletal health, motor skill development, psychosocial health, cognitive development, and cardio-metabolic disease risk factors) for three age groups (infants aged <1 year; toddlers aged 1-2 years; preschoolers aged 3-4 years). Evidence from the review was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The new guidelines include a preamble to provide context, followed by the specific recommendations. The final guidelines benefitted from extensive on-line consultations with input from >900 domestic and international stakeholders, end-users, and key informants. The final guidelines state: for healthy growth and development, caregivers should minimize the time infants (aged <1 year), toddlers (aged 1-2 years), and preschoolers (aged 3-4 years) spend being sedentary during waking hours. This includes prolonged sitting or being restrained (e.g., stroller, high chair) for more than 1 h at a time. For those under 2 years, screen time (e.g., TV, computer, electronic games) is not recommended. For children 2-4 years, screen time should be limited to under 1 h per day; less is better.

Sleep characteristics are important correlates of lifestyle behaviors in children. Differences between countries suggest that interventions aimed at improving sleep and lifestyle behaviors should be culturally adapted.

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In order to verify if the full moon is associated with sleep and activity behaviors, we used a 12-country study providing 33,710 24-h accelerometer recordings of sleep and activity. The present observational, cross-sectional study included 5812 children ages 9–11 years from study sites that represented all inhabited continents and wide ranges of human development (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, India, Kenya, Portugal, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States). Three moon phases were used in this analysis: full moon (±4 days; reference), half moon (±5–9 days), and new moon (±10–14 days) from nearest full moon. Nocturnal sleep duration, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and total sedentary time (SED) were monitored over seven consecutive days using a waist-worn accelerometer worn 24 h a day. Only sleep duration was found to significantly differ between moon phases (~5 min/night shorter during full moon compared to new moon). Differences in MVPA, LPA, and SED between moon phases were negligible and non-significant (<2 min/day difference). There was no difference in the associations between study sites. In conclusion, sleep duration was 1% shorter at full moon compared to new moon, while activity behaviors were not significantly associated with the lunar cycle in this global sample of children. Whether this seemingly minimal difference is clinically meaningful is questionable.

ObjectiveTo conduct a time-cost analysis of formatting in scientific publishing.DesignInternational, cross-sectional study (one-time survey).SettingInternet-based self-report survey, live between September 2018 and January 2019.ParticipantsAnyone working in research, science, or academia and who submitted at least one peer-reviewed manuscript for consideration for publication in 2017. Completed surveys were available for 372 participants from 41 countries (60% of respondents were from Canada).Main outcome measureTime (hours) and cost (wage per hour x time) associated with formatting a research paper for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal.ResultsThe median annual income category was US$61,000–80,999, and the median number of publications formatted per year was four. Manuscripts required a median of two attempts before they were accepted for publication. The median formatting time was 14 hours per manuscript, or 52 hours per person, per year. This resulted in a median calculated cost of US$477 per manuscript or US$1,908 per person, per year.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the cost of manuscript formatting in scientific publishing. Our results suggest that scientific formatting represents a loss of 52 hours, costing the equivalent of US$1,908 per researcher per year. These results identify the hidden and pernicious price associated with scientific publishing and provide evidence to advocate for the elimination of strict formatting guidelines, at least prior to acceptance.