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Factors associated with early childhood education and care service implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Australia: a cross-sectional study

  • Original Research
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Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Many early childhood education and care (ECEC) services fail to implement recommended policies and practices supportive of healthy eating and physical activity. The purpose of this study was to assess whether certain theoretically-based factors are associated with implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in a sample of ECEC services. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with Service Managers of ECEC services. The survey assessed the operational characteristics, policy, and practice implementation, and 13 factors were suggested by Damschroder’s Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to impede or promote implementation. Logistic regression analyses found a significant association between implementation factor score and full implementation (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.18–1.61; p = <0.01), indicating that for every one point increase in implementation score, ECEC services were 38 % more likely to be fully implementing the policies and practices. The findings highlight the opportunities for improving implementation of obesity prevention interventions in this setting by developing interventions that address such factors.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors Contributions

All authors conceived the study, interpreted data analysis, provided critical comment on drafts. LW led manuscript drafting. NW performed statistical analyses. RW and PD managed the collection of data. All authors have given final approval of the version to be published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health, School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Luke Wolfenden PhD, Meghan Finch MPH, Nicole Nathan M Health Science, Hons, Natasha Weaver PhD, John Wiggers PhD, Sze Lin Yoong PhD, Jannah Jones BNutrDiet, Rebecca Wyse BSci & Rachel Sutherland MPH

  2. Hunter New England Population Health, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Luke Wolfenden PhD, Meghan Finch MPH, Nicole Nathan M Health Science, Hons, John Wiggers PhD, Sze Lin Yoong PhD, Jannah Jones BNutrDiet, Pennie Dodds PhD, Rebecca Wyse BSci, Rachel Sutherland MPH & Karen Gillham MSoc Sci

  3. Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Luke Wolfenden PhD, Meghan Finch MPH, Nicole Nathan M Health Science, Hons, John Wiggers PhD, Sze Lin Yoong PhD, Jannah Jones BNutrDiet, Rebecca Wyse BSci, Rachel Sutherland MPH & Karen Gillham MSoc Sci

Authors
  1. Luke Wolfenden PhD
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  2. Meghan Finch MPH
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  3. Nicole Nathan M Health Science, Hons
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  4. Natasha Weaver PhD
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  5. John Wiggers PhD
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  6. Sze Lin Yoong PhD
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  7. Jannah Jones BNutrDiet
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  8. Pennie Dodds PhD
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  9. Rebecca Wyse BSci
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  10. Rachel Sutherland MPH
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  11. Karen Gillham MSoc Sci
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jannah Jones BNutrDiet.

Additional information

Implications

Practice: Securing the support of early childhood education and care (ECEC) service managers, management committees, and parents is important in assisting services to implement obesity prevention policies and practices.

Policy: Policies to support obesity prevention initiatives in the ECEC setting require support if they are to be implemented.

Research: Further research should test interventions to facilitate the implementation of ECEC service healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices that target service managers, management committees, and parents.

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Wolfenden, L., Finch, M., Nathan, N. et al. Factors associated with early childhood education and care service implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Australia: a cross-sectional study. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 5, 327–334 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0319-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0319-y

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