Interventions to Improve Child Physical Activity in the Early Childhood Education and Care Setting: An Umbrella Review

Melanie Lum, Luke Wolfenden, Jannah Jones, Alice Grady, Hayley Christian, Kathryn Reilly and Sze Lin Yoong
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Melanie Lum: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Luke Wolfenden: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Jannah Jones: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Alice Grady: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Hayley Christian: Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Kathryn Reilly: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Sze Lin Yoong: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are a key setting to support improvements in the physical activity of young children. This umbrella review gathered and synthesised systematic review evidence of the effectiveness of interventions in the ECEC setting on the physical activity levels of children aged 0–6. We also mapped the current evidence to the existing ECEC sector-specific physical activity practice recommendations. Five electronic databases were searched to identify systematic reviews that evaluated the impact of any ECEC-based interventions on the physical activity levels (e.g., moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, total physical activity) of children aged 0–6. One reviewer extracted data on intervention effectiveness and quality of the reviews, checked by a second reviewer. Ten reviews were included. Overall, the majority of the reviews found interventions delivered in ECEC improved child physical activity. Across reviews, the impact of six intervention strategies were identified, mapped to four (of eight) broad recommendations (i.e., providing opportunity, offering educator training, educators promoting the benefits of physical activity, creating a physical activity-promoting environment). The impact of the majority of recommendations, however, did not have systematic review evidence. Further investigation of the effectiveness of ECEC-based physical activity strategies is required to demonstrate support for the existing recommended practices.

Keywords: physical activity; early childhood education and care; umbrella review; intervention strategies; policies and practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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