Active Early: Promoting Physical Activity in Wisconsin Child Care

Background: Nearly one-third of children ages 2-4 in Wisconsin are overweight or obese. Child care settings play an important role in influencing children's eating and activity habits because of the time children spend in out-of-home care. Active Early is a CDC-funded program working to improve the quantity and quality of PA in child care settings. Objectives: Active Early aims to provide low- and no-cost strategies and resources to 20 regulated child care sites to promote 120 minutes of teacher-led and unstructured PA throughout the child care day. Methods: PA environments and behaviors are assessed using the total PA score from the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) tool and accelerometry at baseline (Fall 2010), mid-point (Spring 2011) and post-program (Fall 2011). Results: At baseline, child care centers with supportive environments (n=10, EPAO score ≥ 11.2) were observed to have more occasions of PA (5.4 vs. 3.0, p = 0.06) and minutes of teacher-led PA (39.3 min. vs. 22.6 min, p = 0.10) compared to centers with less supportive environments (n=10, EPAO score < 11.2). Moderate-vigorous activity levels of children (n = 235) was also higher among centers with supportive environments compared to less supportive environments (3.2% time vs. 1.9% time, p < 0.01) and was positively correlated with number of occasions of PA (r=0.21, p < 0.01). This trend continued at midpoint evaluations. Conclusions: Data supports previous research indicating child care centers can affect physical activity behaviors of children.