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Our aims were to examine the efficacy of a new observational instrument "System for Observing Outdoor Play" for detecting changes in outdoor play and chart the use of recycled and repurposed materials in the school playground during the course of an intervention to increase outdoor play. Children from one Sydney primary school were observed (N = 111; 5-12 years) using an observational instrument developed as part of the Sydney Playground Project. Data on types of activities and frequencies were collected at baseline and seven times during intervention. Use of intervention materials was consistently high and associated with increases in play-related activities (40-77%), while inactive pursuits decreased (52-31%), on average. The observational instrument proved efficacious in tracking changes in play. Modification of the school playground environment by introducing loose parts changed children's play-related behaviour; the variety of activities increased, including construction and creative play. Physical inactivity decreased. Recycled materials can increase children's creative, social and physical play.

Background: We assessed the effectiveness of a simple intervention for increasing children's physical activity, play, perceived competence/social acceptance, and social skills. Methods: A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted, in which schools were the clusters. Twelve Sydney (Australia) primary schools were randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions, with 226 children (5-7 years old) selected randomly to participate. Data were collected at baseline and after 13 weeks. The intervention consisted of introducing recycled materials without an obvious play purpose into school playgrounds and a risk-reframing workshop for parents and teachers. Results: Children from the intervention schools increased physical activity and reduced sedentary time while control schools decreased physical activity and increased sedentary time. The intervention yielded increases in total accelerometer counts (ß = 9350 counts, 95% CI 3490-1522, p = 0.002), minutes of moderate/vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (ß = 1.8 min, 95% CI 0.52-3.12, p = 0.006), and reductions in sedentary time (ß = -2.1 min, 95% CI -3.77-(-0.51), p = 0.01). Although the changes in time spent in play and nonplay were not statistically different (p = 0.08) the effect size (d = 0.27) indicates clinical significance. Conclusions: This intervention was effective for increasing MVPA during recess and demonstrated capacity to improve play opportunities in school playgrounds.

This paper reports the results of risk reframing, an intervention to offer parents and educators a context for building new and complex perceptions of risk in children's outdoor free play. Our objective was to alter these adults' perceptions of risk to increase the sustainability of an innovative child-centred playground intervention. Qualitative data in the form of audio-recordings of risk-reframing sessions, brief participant evaluations and field notes kept by project staff were collected and either transcribed in their entirety or summarised in brief written reports. These data were subjected to constant comparative analysis to identify emergent themes. Results suggest that educators and parents benefit from opportunities to share risk perceptions and discuss the costs and benefits for offering outdoor free play to children to achieve their common goals for children: health, happiness and resilience.

Prolonged periods of stationary behaviour, a common occurrence in many office workplaces, are linked with a range of physical disorders. Investigating the physical context of this behaviour may be a key to developing effective interventions. This study aimed to estimate and locate the stationary and movement behaviours of office workers (n = 10) by segmenting spatiotemporal data collected over 5 days in an office work-based setting. The segmentation method achieved a balanced accuracy ≥85.5% for observation classification and ≥90% for bout classification when compared to reference data. The results show the workers spent the majority of their time stationary (Mean = 86.4%) and had on average, 28.4 stationary and 25.9 moving bouts per hour. While these findings accord with other studies, the segmented data was also visualised, revealing that the workers were stationary for periods ≥5 min at multiple locations and these locations changed across time. Practitioner Summary: This study applied a data segmentation method to classify stationary and moving behaviours from spatiotemporal data collected in an office workplace. The segmented data revealed not only what behaviours occurred but also their location, duration, and time. Segmenting spatiotemporal data may add valuable physical context to aid workplace research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although people are living longer, well-being and quality of life (QoL) are not guaranteed. The built environment is recognized as influencing health outcomes across lifespans. This narrative review takes a cross-disciplinary approach to understand the current evidence of the relationship between design, healthy ageing and QoL. Diverse methods were used to search for relevant literature, including database, and reference list search. Sixty-five papers were deemed relevant and included in this review. Seven main themes emerged through inductive thematic analysis. The extracted literature suggests there is good evidence for the role of biophilia, and indoor environmental quality; emerging evidence for technology, wayfinding, and opportunities for social interactions; but limited evidence for safety/security and adaptability/fit. One significant consideration for healthy ageing was older adults maintaining agency in their lives, including the ability to exert control over their environment in order to support healthy ageing. Design decisions have a significant impact on the health and well-being of older adults, but these decisions are often made in the absence of strong scientific evidence. This review sets out to assist decision-makers to consider design principles that support healthy ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Australia has joined a growing number of nations that have evaluated the physical activity and sedentary behavior status of their children. Australia received a "D minus" in the first Active Healthy Kids Australia Physical Activity Report Card. Methods: An expert subgroup of the Australian Report Card Research Working Group iteratively reviewed available evidence to answer 3 questions: (a) What are the main sedentary behaviors of children? (b) What are the potential mechanisms for sedentary behavior to impact child health and development? and (c) What are the effects of different types of sedentary behaviors on child health and development? Results: Neither sedentary time nor screen time is a homogeneous activity likely to result in homogenous effects. There are several mechanisms by which various sedentary behaviors may positively or negatively affect cardiometabolic, neuromusculoskeletal, and psychosocial health, though the strength of evidence varies. National surveillance systems and mechanistic, longitudinal, and experimental studies are needed for Australia and other nations to improve their grade. Conclusions: Despite limitations, available evidence is sufficiently convincing that the total exposure and pattern of exposure to sedentary behaviors are critical to the healthy growth, development, and wellbeing of children. Nations therefore need strategies to address these common behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]