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Background: This paper examines school and classroom effects on Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy implementation in classrooms in Ontario, Canada. In 2005 the Ontario Ministry of Education mandated a policy requiring school boards to "ensure that all elementary students, including students with special needs, have a minimum of twenty minutes of sustained MVPA each school day during instructional time". Based on an adaptation of Chaudoir's conceptual framework, this paper contributes to understanding the extent to which school factors (as reported by administrators) and classroom factors (as reported by teachers) are associated with policy implementation fidelity at the classroom level.Methods: Cross-sectional online surveys were conducted in 2014 with elementary school administrators and teachers, based on representative random samples of schools and classrooms. A measure assessing implementation fidelity was developed from the six required components of the policy and for this paper fidelity at the classroom level is treated as the outcome variable. Several school- and classroom-level measures were also included in the surveys and a number of these were selected for inclusion here. Data from the two surveys were merged and selected variables were included in the multi-level analysis. Two-level logistic regression models were conducted to account for nesting of classrooms within schools and a series of models were conducted to identify factors associated with implementation fidelity.Results: The analytic sample for this study included 170 school administrators and 307 classroom teachers from corresponding schools. Findings from the multi-level logistic regression analyses indicated that only classroom/teacher-level factors were significantly associated with implementation fidelity at the classroom level. None of the school/administrator predictors were significantly related to fidelity. The most parsimonious model included five significant classroom/teacher predictors: teachers' perception of DPA as realistic and achievable; confidence (self-efficacy); scheduling DPA in timetables; lack of space; and lack of time.Conclusions: Findings from the study indicate the theoretical and practical importance of addressing classroom and teacher factors since they are most proximal to implementation fidelity to the policy. Several of these factors also reflect complex structural and organizational contexts, indicating that a systems approach to understanding and supporting DPA implementation fidelity is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Worldwide, most adolescent girls do not meet physical activity (PA) recommendations and very few PA programs are tailored specifically towards them. Even fewer information exists about the long-term effects of such programs. Some Canadian schools have implemented the FitSpirit PA intervention designed specifically for girls aged 12 to 17 years old. This paper describes the protocol of a quasi-experimental study evaluating long-term changes in health behaviours and outcomes following FitSpirit participation.Methods: The study is conducted among schools that partner with FitSpirit every year. It started in 2018 and will be completed in 2022. The intervention comprises motivational talks, a turnkey running program, PA sessions and special events. Study participants fill out an online questionnaire twice a year. Follow-up questionnaires are sent at the end of each school year to the study participants who dropout from FitSpirit. The main outcome, changes in PA levels, is evaluated using questions validated for adolescents. Secondary outcomes are health (perceived health); lifestyle habits (sedentary activities, eating and sleeping habits); psychosocial outcomes (physical self-efficacy and body satisfaction); and FitSpirit appreciation (activity participation and satisfaction). Most questions originate from questionnaires validated for the adolescent population. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses will be performed.Discussion: This study will provide one of the first longitudinal reports on the impact of a large extra-curricular PA intervention designed specifically for adolescent girls. The current study will uniquely contribute to PA research by assessing outcomes additional to PA levels, including markers of health, lifestyle habits and psychosocial determinants.Trial Registration: NCT, NCT03804151 , Registered on January 22, 2019; retrospectively registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: New Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years have been released in 2017. According to the guidelines, within a 24-h period, preschoolers should accumulate at least 180 min of physical activity (of which at least 60 min is moderate-to-vigorous physical activity), engage in no more than 1 h of screen time, and obtain between 10 and 13 h of sleep. This study examined the proportions of preschool-aged (3 to 4 years) Canadian children who met these new guidelines and different recommendations within the guidelines, and the associations with adiposity indicators.Methods: Participants were 803 children (mean age: 3.5 years) from cycles 2-4 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of Canadians. Physical activity was accelerometer-derived, and screen time and sleep duration were parent-reported. Participants were classified as meeting the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines if they met all three specific time recommendations for physical activity, screen time, and sleep. The adiposity indicators in this study were body mass index (BMI) z-scores and BMI status (World Health Organization Growth Standards).Results: A total of 12.7% of preschool-aged children met the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, and 3.3% met none of the three recommendations. A high proportion of children met the sleep duration (83.9%) and physical activity (61.8%) recommendations, while 24.4% met the screen time recommendation. No associations were found between meeting individual or combined recommendations and adiposity.Conclusions: Very few preschool-aged children in Canada (~13%) met all three recommendations contained within the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. None of the combinations of recommendations were associated with adiposity in this sample. Future work should focus on identifying innovative ways to reduce screen time in this population, and should examine the associations of guideline adherence with health indicators other than adiposity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Canada, 31.5 % of children are overweight or obese, putting them at an increased risk of chronic co-morbidities and premature mortality. Physical activity, healthy eating, and screen time are important behavioural determinants of childhood overweight and obesity that are influenced by the family environment, and particularly parents' support behaviours. However, there is currently a limited understanding of which types of these support behaviours have the greatest positive impact on healthy child behaviours. This study aims to determine the relative contribution of different types of parental support behaviours for predicting the likelihood that children meet established guidelines for daily physical activity, daily fruit and vegetable consumption, and recreational screen time.Methods: A Computer Assisted Telephone Interview survey was used to collect data from a random sample of parents or guardians with at least one child under the age of 18 in Ontario (n = 3,206). Three multivariable logistic regression models were built to predict whether or not parents reported their child was meeting guidelines. Independent variables included parent and child age and gender, multiple indicators of parental support behaviours, and socio-demographic characteristics. Parental support behaviours were categorized post-hoc as motivational, instrumental, regulatory, and conditional based on an adapted framework.Results: Controlling for all other factors in the model, several parental support behaviours were found to be significant predictors of children meeting established health guidelines. For example, conditional support behaviours including taking the child to places where they can be active (OR: 2.06; 95 % CI: 1.32-3.21), and eating meals as a family away from the TV (95 % CI: 1.15-2.41) were significant positive predictors of children meeting physical activity and fruit and vegetable guidelines, respectively.Conclusions: Health promotion efforts aimed at improving particular parent support behaviours could be effective levers for mitigating the burden of excess body weight in childhood. As such, the influence of support behaviours should be fully considered in any comprehensive approach to prevention and reduction of childhood overweight and obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little evidence exists on the physical activity and sedentary time of Canadian toddlers; this study objectively measured such behaviors and compared participants' activity levels to national guidelines. Levels of screen-viewing among toddlers were also explored.Methods: Forty toddlers (mean age = 25.7 months) wore Actical accelerometers for seven consecutive days (15 s epoch). Parents/guardians completed a wear-time log and a demographic and screen-viewing questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were used to determine participants' levels of physical activity and sedentary time, to identify whether toddlers were meeting physical activity/sedentary guidelines, and to explore demographic variables. T-tests were used to assess whether toddlers' activity levels differed based on cut-points applied and various demographic and screen-related variables. Regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between toddlers' sedentary time and screen-viewing levels.Results: Toddlers engaged in 37.27 (SD = 3.79) to 49.40 (SD = 3.29) mins/hr of sedentary time, 9.79 (SD = 2.90) to 18.78 (SD = 3.22) mins/hr of light-intensity physical activity (LPA), 0.82 (SD = 0.72) to 3.95 (SD = 1.93) mins/hr of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA), and 10.60 (SD =3.29) to 22.73 (SD = 3.97) mins/hr of total physical activity (TPA), based on the Trost et al. and the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) cut-points respectively; these rates were significantly different (p <.001). On at least 1 day, 17.5 % (Trost et al. cut-points) and 97.5 % (CHMS cut-points) of the sample met or exceeded the Canadian physical activity guidelines. No statistically significant differences in sedentary time or physical activity (all intensities) based on sex were reported (p <.001); however, LPA (CHMS cut-points) did significantly differ based on childcare attendance (p <.05). Approximately 93.2 % of participants watched television, and 56.8 % utilized computers. Only 18.8 and 25.0 % of children under 2 years and 70.8 and 62.5 % of 2-3 years olds met the screen-use recommendation of the sedentary behavior guidelines on weekdays and weekend days, respectively.Discussion and Conclusion: The implications of this work suggest that a greater understanding of toddlers' activity patterns is needed; additional mechanisms of promoting active behaviors among this group should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]