School environment, sedentary behavior and physical activity in preschool children

Abstract

Objective:To analyze physical activity and sedentary behavior in preschool children during their stay at school and the associated factors.Methods:370 preschoolers, aged 4–6 years, stratified according to gender, age and school region in the city of Londrina, PR, participated in the study. A questionnaire was applied to principals of preschools to analyze the school infrastructure and environment. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were estimated using accelerometers for five consecutive days during the children's stay at school. The odds ratio (OR) was estimated through binary logistic regression.Results:At school, regardless of age, preschoolers spend relatively more time in sedentary behaviors (89.6–90.9%), followed by light (4.6–7.6%), moderate (1.3–3.0%) and vigorous (0.5–2.3%) physical activity. The indoor recreation room (OR 0.20, 95%CI 0.05–0.83) and the playground (OR 0.08, 95%CI 0.00–0.80) protect four-year-old schoolchildren from highly sedentary behavior. An inverse association was found between the indoor recreation room and physical activity (OR 0.20, 95%CI 0.00–0.93) in five-year-old children. The indoor recreation room (OR 1.54, 95%CI 1.35–1.77), the playground (OR 2.82, 95%CI 1.14–6.96) and the recess (OR 1.54, 95%CI 1.35–1.77) are factors that increase the chance of six-year-old schoolchildren to be active.Conclusions:The school infrastructure and environment should be seen as strategies to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior in preschool children.

The physical indoor environment in ECEC settings: children’s well-being and physical activity

“…The only physical environmental variable in this study that was significantly positively associated with well-being was rooms for PA. This place variable was also strongly positively associated with PA, which is in line with previous studies (Barbosa et al 2016;Sugiyama et al 2010). The correlation analysis indicated that children's well-being and PA are related in the indoor environment, and the positive association between rooms for PA and well-being can be interpreted in this regard.…”

“…Previous studies have found that the size of the play area (Gubbels et al 2012;Olesen et al 2013), having an indoor recreation room (Barbosa et al 2016) and using indoor space for motor activities (Sugiyama et al 2010) are positively associated with PA. The association between indoor subscales of the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) tool and PA is unclear (Gubbels et al 2011;Bower et al 2008;Peden et al 2017;Tucker et al 2015;Vanderloo et al 2015).…”

Supportive indoor environments for functional play in ECEC institutions: a strategy for promoting well-being and physical activity?

“…The results in this study indicated that physical activity could be expected to be 0.9 higher on the OSRAC-P scale and the amount of functional play to be 37% higher when children are in the tumbling space for the entire observation. This adds to previous evidence suggesting that the possibility to use rooms in the indoor environment for motor activities is positively associated with children's activity levels (Barbosa et al, 2016;Sugiyama et al, 2012). Targeting the possibilities for functional play in the indoor environment may, therefore, be a successful intervention strategy in order to promote physical activity in ECEC institutions.…”

Systematic Review of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Indicators in South-American Preschool Children

“…One of the articles included in this summary presents data collected in the school environment. 19 Besides the high prevalence of sedentary behavior throughout the school day, the study also shows that children enrolled in schools with recreation room and playgrounds have reduced levels of sedentary behavior when compared to those who attend schools that do not have these facilities. In this scenario, we can suggest the development of new studies in the school environment, introducing knowledge, involving parents/guardians, and with the possibility of changing the surroundings to avoid excessive sedentary behavior.…”

“…After the inclusion of two articles retrieved in manual searches, the descriptive summary consisted of a total of 13 original articles. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] The study design determined that all included articles had a cross-sectional nature. In all, the summary gathered data from 11 different samples: five from Chile, five from Brazil, and one from Argentina.…”