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Despite immense benefits of physical activity on health and developmental outcomes, few children achieve recommended daily levels of physical activity. Given more than half of families with children own a dog, we investigated the effect of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention to encourage dog-facilitated physical activity through increased family dog walking and children's active play with their dog.
Dog walking is important for public health and dog welfare, yet some owners do not walk with their dogs regularly. This study examined factors associated with participation in regular dog walking and intention to dog walk, in order to inform physical activity interventions.
Physical inactivity in childhood is a major public health issue. Dog ownership has been widely reported to lead to greater physical activity in adults and school-aged children. We examined if dog ownership and dog-facilitated physical activity were associated with higher physical activity in preschoolers. Secondary analysis of the 'Play Spaces & Environments for Children's Physical Activity' (PLAYCE, 2015-2018) study involving 1366, 2-5-year-olds from 122 long day-care centres in Perth, Australia was conducted.
To examine the role of pet play and dog walking in children's and adolescents' leisure time, and the relationship between these activities and physical activity
Food environments are significant drivers of obesity and diet-related diseases, making them key targets for interventions that support healthier food choices. The role of Local Government Authorities is pivotal in shaping community food environments.
Advertising and marketing by the alcohol industry serve to normalise alcohol use, with exposure to alcohol advertising linked to earlier and riskier drinking among young people. Advertising that portrays alcohol use in and around waterways is of particular concern, with one in five fatal drownings being associated with alcohol.
Physical constraints of small apartment kitchens and the influence of the surrounding community food environment may impact food practices of apartment residents. Social media portrayal of these features may influence public perception of apartment living.
Physical activity is crucial for young children's health and development. Many young children do not meet the recommended 3 hours of daily physical activity, including 60 min of energetic play. Early childhood education and care (ECEC/childcare) is a key setting to intervene to improve children's physical activity. The Play Active programme is a scalable evidence-informed ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to improve educators' physical activity-related practices.
Developing dietary guidelines for lactating women presents significant challenges, due to limited evidence being available on their specific nutrient needs and the biological impacts of various dietary dimensions. Current dietary recommendations often rely on data from nonlactating women, leading to potential inaccuracies.
There is an urgent need for scalable interventions to promote physical activity in early childhood. An early childhood education and care physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies (Play Active) has been proposed for scale-up in Australia.