Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, W1-34 Van Vliet Centre, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H9, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2014 Jan 21;14:61. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-61.
To develop evidence-based interventions promoting healthy active lifestyles among young children and their parents, a greater understanding is needed of the correlates of physical activity and screen time in these dyads. Physical environment features within neighborhoods may have important influences on both children and their parents. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between several features of the physical environment with physical activity and screen time among 511 young children (≤5 years old) and their parents, after adjusting for socio-demographic factors.
From May to September, 2011, parents of 0-5 year old children from Kingston, Canada completed a questionnaire that assessed socio-demographic characteristics, their physical activity and screen time, and their child's physical activity and screen time. Guided by a previously developed conceptual framework, several physical environment features were assessed using Geographic Information Systems including, function (walkability), safety (road speed), aesthetics (streetscape), and destination (outdoor play/activity space, recreation facilities, distance to closest park, yard at home). Multilevel linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationships while adjusting for several socio-demographic factors.
The only independent association observed for the physical environment features was between higher outdoor play/activity space and higher screen time levels among parents. Several associations were observed with socio-demographic variables. For physical activity, child age, child care status, and family socioeconomic status (SES) were independent correlates for children while sex was an independent correlate for parents. For screen time, child age and family SES were independent correlates for children while neighborhood SES was an independent correlate for parents.
The findings suggest that socio-demographic factors, including social environment factors, may be more important targets than features of the physical environment for future interventions aiming to promote healthy active lifestyles in young children and their parents. Given this was one of the first studies to examine these associations in young child-parent dyads, future research should confirm and build on these findings.
为了制定促进幼儿及其家长健康积极生活方式的循证干预措施，我们需要更深入地了解这对亲子群体中身体活动和屏幕时间的相关因素。邻里环境特征可能对儿童及其家长都有重要影响。本研究的目的是在调整社会人口因素后，检验邻里环境的几个特征与 511 名（≤5 岁）幼儿及其家长的身体活动和屏幕时间之间的关联。
2011 年 5 月至 9 月，加拿大金斯敦的 0-5 岁儿童的家长完成了一份问卷，评估了社会人口特征、他们的身体活动和屏幕时间，以及他们孩子的身体活动和屏幕时间。该研究以先前制定的概念框架为指导，使用地理信息系统评估了几个环境特征，包括功能（步行性）、安全（道路速度）、美观（街景）和目的地（户外游戏/活动空间、娱乐设施、距离最近的公园、家庭院子）。采用多水平线性回归分析，在调整多个社会人口因素的情况下，检验这些关系。
观察到的与环境特征有关的唯一独立关联是，父母的户外游戏/活动空间越大，他们的屏幕时间越高。还观察到与社会人口变量的几个关联。对于身体活动，儿童年龄、儿童照护状况和家庭社会经济地位（SES）是儿童的独立相关因素，而性别是父母的独立相关因素。对于屏幕时间，儿童年龄和家庭 SES 是儿童的独立相关因素，而邻里 SES 是父母的独立相关因素。
研究结果表明，社会人口因素，包括社会环境因素，可能比环境特征更重要，是未来干预措施的目标，旨在促进幼儿及其家长的健康积极生活方式。鉴于这是第一项研究这些关联的研究之一，未来的研究应证实并建立在这些发现的基础上。
