Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at UTHealth, School of Public Health in Austin, 1616 Guadalupe St, Ste 6.300, Austin, TX, 78701. Email:
Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), School of Public Health in Austin, Austin, Texas.
Prev Chronic Dis. 2017 Dec 21;14:E139. doi: 10.5888/pcd14.170297.
Practices and barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity at Head Start centers may influence children's energy balance behaviors. We examined differences between directors' and teachers' perspectives on best practices and barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity in Head Start centers.
We conducted a cross-sectional study of directors (n = 23) and teachers (n = 113) at 23 Head Start centers participating in the baseline assessment of the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration study. Participants completed surveys about practices and barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity. Multilevel regression models examined differences between director and teacher responses.
More than half of directors and teachers reported meeting most best practices related to nutrition and physical activity; few directors or teachers (<25%) reported conducting physical activity for more than 60 minutes a day, and less than 40% of teachers helped children attend to satiety cues. Significantly more directors than teachers reported meeting 2 nutrition-related best practices: "Teachers rarely eat less healthy foods (especially sweets, salty snacks, and sugary drinks) in front of children" and "Teachers talk to children about trying/enjoying new foods" (P < .05). No barrier to healthy eating or physical activity was reported by more than 25% of directors or teachers. Significantly more teachers than directors reported barriers to healthy eating, citing lack of food service staff support, limited time, and insufficient funds (P < .05).
More barriers to healthy eating were reported than were barriers to physical activity indicating that more support may be needed for healthy eating. Differences between responses of directors and teachers may have implications for future assessments of implementation of best practices and barriers to implementation related to nutrition and physical activity in early care and education centers.
在“学步儿童中心”（Head Start centers）推行健康饮食和身体活动的做法和障碍可能会影响儿童的能量平衡行为。我们研究了主任和教师对在 Head Start 中心推广健康饮食和身体活动的最佳做法和障碍的看法之间的差异。
我们对参加德克萨斯州儿童肥胖症研究示范研究基线评估的 23 个 Head Start 中心的 23 名主任（n=23）和 113 名教师进行了横断面研究。参与者完成了关于促进健康饮食和身体活动的最佳做法和障碍的调查问卷。多水平回归模型检验了主任和教师回答之间的差异。
超过一半的主任和教师报告说，他们在营养和身体活动方面符合大多数最佳实践；很少有主任或教师（<25%）报告每天进行超过 60 分钟的身体活动，不到 40%的教师帮助孩子注意饱腹感信号。与营养相关的两项最佳实践，有更多的主任而不是教师报告符合：“教师很少在孩子面前吃不太健康的食物（尤其是甜食、咸点心和含糖饮料）”和“教师与孩子谈论尝试/享受新食物”（P<0.05）。没有饮食健康或身体活动的障碍报告被超过 25%的主任或教师报道。与主任相比，更多的教师报告了饮食健康方面的障碍，提到缺乏食品服务人员的支持、时间有限和资金不足（P<0.05）。
与身体活动相比，更多的饮食健康障碍被报告，这表明需要更多的支持来促进饮食健康。主任和教师反应之间的差异可能对未来评估营养和身体活动在早期护理和教育中心的最佳实践的实施和实施障碍具有重要意义。
