Promoting physical activity at the pre-school playground: The effects of providing markings and play equipment
Introduction
Current knowledge posits that increased physical activity in early childhood is associated with important health benefits, like improved bone health (Janz et al., 2001, Janz et al., 2004) and a reduced risk of being overweight or obese (Moore et al., 2003, Sääkslahti et al., 2004b, Fisher et al., 2005, Janz et al., 2002, Jago et al., 2005, Dietz, 1997). Although the link between physical activity engagement and health outcomes in pre-school children still needs further study, the engagement in moderate to vigorous physical activity, for at least 60 min/day, has also been recommended in this young age group (Department of Health, Physical Activity, Health Improvement and Prevention, 2004, Strong et al., 2005). However, according to the literature review of Oliver et al. (2007) 49 studies measured physical activity in pre-schoolers and it was concluded that pre-schoolers are characterized by low levels of physical activity and high levels of sedentary behavior.
Despite the urgent need for effective interventions aimed at increasing physical activity in pre-schoolers, a recent review by Van Sluijs et al. (2008) found that physical activity intervention studies in pre-schoolers are rare. Sääkslahti et al. (2004a) showed that physical activity in 4 to 7–year-olds could be increased via a family-based intervention. In their study physical activity evaluations were based on diaries from the parents and the intervention focused on motivating the parents to encourage and train their children to be physically active. Since in many countries most children spend extensive time in pre-schools, the pre-school may play an important role in achieving adequate physical activity levels for young children. However, Pate et al., 2004, Finn et al., 2002, Dowda et al., 2004 reported low levels of physical activity during pre-school attendance. Consequently, physical activity promotion efforts in pre-school settings seem needed.
According to a review of Davison and Lawson (2006), the role of supportive environment is important as a trigger of physical activity, particularly in children. In most pre-school programs, break times with unstructured free play are scheduled for several periods each day, making it an important environmental factor for the promotion of physical activity. While the terminology of break time at pre-school may differ across countries, in the present study the term “recess” is used. Recess is typically held outdoors and allows children to move freely. While recesses hold the potential to contribute to daily physical activity, it was shown that 4- to 5-year-old children spent the majority of recess break time in sedentary activities (McKenzie et al., 1997). Also Hannon and Brown (2008) recently found that 3- to 5-year-olds spent almost half of their pre-school outdoor play time engaged in sedentary activity and only 4.5% in vigorous activity.
In the literature, different opportunities, like playground redesign, paintings of court markings, fun trails and hopscotches (Ridgers et al., 2007, Stratton, 2000, Stratton and Mullan, 2005), provision of game equipment (Verstraete et al., 2006), and teacher supervision (Zask et al., 2001), have been evaluated in the scope of activity engagement at recess in elementary school children. However, it is unknown whether these interventions can be used to promote physical activity in pre-schoolers. Hannon and Brown (2008) recently showed in one pre-school that adding portable play equipment (e.g. hurdles, hoops, bean bags and balls) significantly decreased sedentary behavior and increased physical activity during outdoor play in 3- to 5-year-olds on 5 measurement days immediately after adding the play equipment to the playground. However a novelty effect may have caused the positive effects and it is unknown if these effects sustained over longer periods of time. In a previous study, we examined the associations between playground variables and physical activity levels of 783 pre-schoolers on 39 playgrounds (Cardon et al., 2008). In this study it was shown that in pre-school children more play space, shorter recess duration and less supervision during free outdoor play were associated with higher physical activity engagement (Cardon et al., 2008). However, playground markings and access to toys were not significant physical activity predictors, possibly due to the choice of toys and markings in the participating pre-schools. It was observed that mainly field markings and toys for static play were present, which may possibly not be optimal to promote physical activity. Consequently it is still unknown if providing certain toys (e.g. hoops, balls and bean bags) or markings can promote physical activity on pre-school playgrounds. Additionally it is unknown if combining the provision of markings and play equipment results in increased activity engagement.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate if providing play equipment, painting markings or providing play equipment and markings, at the pre-school playground, are effective to increase physical activity levels and to decrease sedentary activities during recess at pre-school. Additionally possible gender and age specific effects were explored.
Section snippets
Subjects
The study was executed in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, where almost all elementary schools have a public pre-school program (2213 schools with a pre-school program; 95%). The pre-school programs are free and virtually all children attend. A convenience sample of 40 public pre-schools was selected. All schools had comparable playground space. Pre-schools, which already provided play equipment during recess, or had markings other than field markings on their playground were
Results
The average recess time was 42 min (± 12 min; range: 26–89 min). At pre-test the total group spend 11.2% (average: 4.7 min) of recess time in moderate to vigorous activity, 25.6% (average: 10.7 min) was spend on light activity and 61.3% (average: 25.7 min) in sedentary activity. Percentages of physical activity engagements at the different intensity levels and average activity levels in the total group and in the four conditions at pre- and post-test can be found in Table 2. Mean values of
Discussion
It was found that the evaluated pre-schoolers spent only 11%, or on average less than 5 min, of recess time in moderate to vigorous activity, whereas 61% was spent in sedentary activity. In the study of Hannon and Brown (2008) 3- to 5-year-olds spent 18% of pre-school outdoor play in moderate to vigorous activity and 49% in sedentary activity. In the present study the average physical activity at baseline was 531 counts per 15-s epoch, which is considered light activity. In the evaluated
Conclusions
The present study contributes to the dearth of literature focusing on the effects of physical activity interventions in pre-school children. It can be concluded that providing playground markings or play equipment during recess are not sufficient to increase time spent in physical activity or decrease time spent in sedentary activity during pre-school recess. Consequently, the inclusion of more activating supervision during free play and more time allocation to structured physical activity,
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Kaatje Jacob, Ellen Van Cauteren, Evelyn Meersschaut and Evelien Moyaert for assistance in the data collection and in painting of the playground markings. The authors also want to express their gratitude to the children and the staff of the participating pre-schools.
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HUBrussel (part of association K.U.Leuven), Research Center PRAGODI, Campus Parnas Stationstraat 301, 1700, Belgium.