Physical activity and screen time in out of school hours care: an observational study

Carol Maher; Rosa Virgara; A Okely; Rebecca Stanley; Millie Watson; Lucy Lewis

doi:10.1186/s12887-019-1653-x

Physical activity and screen time in out of school hours care: an observational study

Carol Maher, Rosa Virgara, A Okely, Rebecca Stanley, Millie Watson, Lucy Lewis

College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Background: This study aimed to describe, and identify predictors of, physical activity and screen time in children attending out of school hours care (OSHC). Method: Twenty-three randomly selected OSHC centres (n = 1068 children) participated in this observational, cross-sectional study. Service directors completed interviews regarding policy, training, scheduling and equipment related to physical activity and screen time. Children's activity behaviours (moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity, sedentary time and screen time) were measured using standardised direct observation. Results: Directors' interviews revealed a lack of formal policy guiding physical activity and screen time. Time spent in activity behaviours varied widely among OSHC services; for example, average time spent in MVPA ranged from 4 to 49% of the session, time spent sedentary ranged from 31 to 79%, and screen time accounted for 0 to 41%. MVPA was inversely associated with total sedentary time (p < 0.001). Higher screen time was associated with OSHC services being larger in size (p = 0.04), offering screen activities on a daily basis (as opposed to less than daily; p = 0.001), offering screen activities prior to 5 pm (as opposed to offering screen activity 5 pm or later; p = 0.02), and having a larger number of screen devices available (p = 0.08). Conclusion: Physical activity and screen time practices in OSHC services are currently ad hoc and variable. In future, development of guidelines, policy and intervention programs may help improve physical activity and screen time in the OSHC setting.

Original language	English
Article number	283
Number of pages	10
Journal	BMC Paediatrics
Volume	19
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1653-x
Publication status	Published - 14 Aug 2019

Bibliographical note

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Keywords

Exercise
Television
Videogames
Sedentary behaviour
Child
Children
Childcare
After school care

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10.1186/s12887-019-1653-xLicence: CC BY

Maher_Physical_P2019Final published version, 0.98 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Physical activity and screen time in out of school hours care: an observational study",

abstract = "Background: This study aimed to describe, and identify predictors of, physical activity and screen time in children attending out of school hours care (OSHC). Method: Twenty-three randomly selected OSHC centres (n = 1068 children) participated in this observational, cross-sectional study. Service directors completed interviews regarding policy, training, scheduling and equipment related to physical activity and screen time. Children's activity behaviours (moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity, sedentary time and screen time) were measured using standardised direct observation. Results: Directors' interviews revealed a lack of formal policy guiding physical activity and screen time. Time spent in activity behaviours varied widely among OSHC services; for example, average time spent in MVPA ranged from 4 to 49% of the session, time spent sedentary ranged from 31 to 79%, and screen time accounted for 0 to 41%. MVPA was inversely associated with total sedentary time (p < 0.001). Higher screen time was associated with OSHC services being larger in size (p = 0.04), offering screen activities on a daily basis (as opposed to less than daily; p = 0.001), offering screen activities prior to 5 pm (as opposed to offering screen activity 5 pm or later; p = 0.02), and having a larger number of screen devices available (p = 0.08). Conclusion: Physical activity and screen time practices in OSHC services are currently ad hoc and variable. In future, development of guidelines, policy and intervention programs may help improve physical activity and screen time in the OSHC setting.",

keywords = "Exercise, Television, Videogames, Sedentary behaviour, Child, Children, Childcare, After school care",

author = "Carol Maher and Rosa Virgara and A Okely and Rebecca Stanley and Millie Watson and Lucy Lewis",

note = "Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.",

year = "2019",

month = aug,

day = "14",

doi = "10.1186/s12887-019-1653-x",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

journal = "BMC Paediatrics",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Physical activity and screen time in out of school hours care

T2 - an observational study

AU - Maher, Carol

AU - Virgara, Rosa

AU - Okely, A

AU - Stanley, Rebecca

AU - Watson, Millie

AU - Lewis, Lucy

N1 - Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

PY - 2019/8/14

Y1 - 2019/8/14

N2 - Background: This study aimed to describe, and identify predictors of, physical activity and screen time in children attending out of school hours care (OSHC). Method: Twenty-three randomly selected OSHC centres (n = 1068 children) participated in this observational, cross-sectional study. Service directors completed interviews regarding policy, training, scheduling and equipment related to physical activity and screen time. Children's activity behaviours (moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity, sedentary time and screen time) were measured using standardised direct observation. Results: Directors' interviews revealed a lack of formal policy guiding physical activity and screen time. Time spent in activity behaviours varied widely among OSHC services; for example, average time spent in MVPA ranged from 4 to 49% of the session, time spent sedentary ranged from 31 to 79%, and screen time accounted for 0 to 41%. MVPA was inversely associated with total sedentary time (p < 0.001). Higher screen time was associated with OSHC services being larger in size (p = 0.04), offering screen activities on a daily basis (as opposed to less than daily; p = 0.001), offering screen activities prior to 5 pm (as opposed to offering screen activity 5 pm or later; p = 0.02), and having a larger number of screen devices available (p = 0.08). Conclusion: Physical activity and screen time practices in OSHC services are currently ad hoc and variable. In future, development of guidelines, policy and intervention programs may help improve physical activity and screen time in the OSHC setting.

AB - Background: This study aimed to describe, and identify predictors of, physical activity and screen time in children attending out of school hours care (OSHC). Method: Twenty-three randomly selected OSHC centres (n = 1068 children) participated in this observational, cross-sectional study. Service directors completed interviews regarding policy, training, scheduling and equipment related to physical activity and screen time. Children's activity behaviours (moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity, sedentary time and screen time) were measured using standardised direct observation. Results: Directors' interviews revealed a lack of formal policy guiding physical activity and screen time. Time spent in activity behaviours varied widely among OSHC services; for example, average time spent in MVPA ranged from 4 to 49% of the session, time spent sedentary ranged from 31 to 79%, and screen time accounted for 0 to 41%. MVPA was inversely associated with total sedentary time (p < 0.001). Higher screen time was associated with OSHC services being larger in size (p = 0.04), offering screen activities on a daily basis (as opposed to less than daily; p = 0.001), offering screen activities prior to 5 pm (as opposed to offering screen activity 5 pm or later; p = 0.02), and having a larger number of screen devices available (p = 0.08). Conclusion: Physical activity and screen time practices in OSHC services are currently ad hoc and variable. In future, development of guidelines, policy and intervention programs may help improve physical activity and screen time in the OSHC setting.

KW - Exercise

KW - Television

KW - Videogames

KW - Sedentary behaviour

KW - Child

KW - Children

KW - Childcare

KW - After school care

U2 - 10.1186/s12887-019-1653-x

DO - 10.1186/s12887-019-1653-x

M3 - Article

SN - 1471-2431

VL - 19

JO - BMC Paediatrics

JF - BMC Paediatrics

IS - 1

M1 - 283

ER -

Physical activity and screen time in out of school hours care: an observational study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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