Clinical Research Directory

Implementing Modified Practices to Leverage Evidence for Movement, Engagement, and Nutrition Topics in Early Childcare and Education

Sponsor: Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

Summary

The goal of this cluster-randomized, controlled trial is to learn if a professional development program for childcare educators, called the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative, can help improve the nutritional quality of meals/snacks served and the availability of physical activity opportunities in childcare programs, and also to learn if this results in improved diet quality and physical activity for young children who attend childcare, especially in under-resourced settings. The main questions it aims to answer are: Do childcare programs that receive professional development through the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative improve the nutritional quality of the meals they serve, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2020), and do they also provide more physical activity opportunities to young children throughout the day? Do young children (ages 2-5 years) attending childcare programs that receive the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative eat more nutritious foods/beverages (as measured by the HEI-2020) and engage in less sedentary time at childcare? Researchers will compare a group of childcare programs who participate in the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative, and a sample of children who attend those programs, to a similar group of childcare programs who do not participate to see if the quality of meals served, the amounts of physical activity opportunities scheduled, young children's dietary quality, and the minutes/day spent in physical activity increase from before to after the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative. Childcare educator participants will: * Complete the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative professional development program (for the intervention group only) * Share copies of menus, schedules, and written policies about nutrition and physical activity in the childcare program Child participants will: * Wear ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers for two days while at childcare to measure physical activity levels. They will do this for two days each at baseline, midline, and follow-up after the initiative concludes. * Be observed during mealtimes by trained researchers to visually estimate how much they consume at meals and snacks in childcare.

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