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Children with neurodevelopmental, emotional, or behavioural challenges participate in lower levels of physical activity (PA) and subsequently have poorer physical and mental health outcomes. We sought to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a multi-component physical literacy program for children with neurodevelopmental, emotional, or behavioural challenges.
The long-term cardiopulmonary outcomes following preterm birth during the surfactant era remain unclear. Respiratory symptoms, particularly exertional symptoms, are common in preterm children. Therefore, cardiopulmonary exercise testing may provide insights into the pathophysiology driving exertional respiratory symptoms in those born preterm. This review aims to outline the current knowledge of cardiopulmonary exercise testing in the assessment of children born preterm in the surfactant era.
This study adds to the current literature by using a novel device-based method to explore where preschool children are physically active outside of home and childcare settings. This study combined accelerometry with geospatial data to explore the influence of the environment on preschool children's physical activity by objectively identifying the locations where preschool children engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) within and outside of their neighborhood.
International guidelines recommend multidisciplinary intervention programs for addressing childhood obesity. In Western Australia, community-based healthy lifestyle programs for children and young people are insufficient for demand, especially for those over-represented in obesity statistics relating to prevalence. This protocol outlines the implementation and evaluation of an adapted, evidenced, community-based program in Perth, Western Australia.
Adaptive behaviour change is central to improving population health, yet poor adoption of health-enhancing behaviours contributes to noncommunicable diseases and so remains a global concern. Research on physical activity behaviour change has continued to expand and evolve since the turn of the millennium, guided by diverse theoretical approaches-from social cognitive theories, organismic dialectical approaches such as Self-Determination Theory, dual-process frameworks, and integrated practical models and taxonomies.
Childhood is a critical period for the development of movement behaviours such as physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour. The PLAYCE Cohort was established to investigate how movement behaviours change over early to middle childhood, across key behaviour settings and relationships with health and development. An overview of the PLAYCE cohort, summary of key findings to date, and future research opportunities are presented.
High levels of sedentary behaviour are associated with poor child health outcomes such as obesity. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are a key intervention setting. Most ECEC policy-based interventions focus on children's nutrition and physical activity with few aimed at children's sedentary behaviour.
Despite evidence suggesting regular exercise (i.e. structured, repetitive and purposeful physical activity) attenuates cardiac patients’ decline in health, our understanding of factors affecting long-term exercise participation among this patient cohort is limited. This problem is pertinent, given that less than half of cardiac patients adhere to exercise following discharge from formal exercise-based rehabilitation programmes. In this study, we explored factors influencing exercise participation after an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programme.
Assessment of motor competence is critical for planning and monitoring children's development. However, many assessment tools require time, training, and resources not available to most teachers. We aimed to evaluate the external aspect of construct validity of a rapid product-oriented fundamental movement skill assessment tool designed specifically for primary education settings.
Youth sports programs provide an opportunity to embed mental health and wellbeing programs to reach young people with mental health support. The aims of this study were to (a) examine mental health outcomes from a youth sports program including a mental health program (Life-Fit-Learning) in adolescent boys and girls, and (b) among the larger cohort of adolescent boys, to examine whether partial or full completion of Life-Fit-Learning yielded different outcomes for boys within healthy and high-risk ranges for anxiety, depression and behavioral concerns.