STUDY FINDS VOID FOR PRESCHOOL STUDENTS; EXERCISE; KIDS LACK ACTIVITY, USC RESEARCH SAYS

The Myrtle Beach Sun-News
November 1, 2004
BYLINE: By Linda H. Lamb

In a nation of couch potatoes, too many preschoolers are becoming tater tots.

That's one conclusion you can draw from research at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health, which tracked activity levels of kids in local preschools and found they might be getting a head start on obesity.

The USC study, one of a few to focus on the physical activity of 3- to 5-year-olds, is reported in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, released today.

Most preschools did not provide half of the two hours of moderate-to-vigorous activity young children need, said Russ Pate, the professor and researcher who led the study.

"Obesity rates are skyrocketing in Americans in general and kids included," he said. "If we're going to learn how to prevent this problem, we'll need to include actions that can be taken with young kids."

The study found significant differences in activity levels among preschools, Pate said.

He said health-minded parents should ask about activity programs when considering facilities for their children.

"They're going to be there for a lot of hours," he said. "It's enough time to matter."

In particular, he said, safe and attractive outdoor play areas appear to promote more activity during the preschool day.

For the study, 281 children from nine Columbia-area preschools were fitted with activity-monitoring devices called Actigraph accelerometers.

Kids wore the beeper-size devices on belts an average of 4.4 hours a day for 6.6 days.

Data from the devices was downloaded for analysis.

On average, children engaged in 7.7 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for each hour they were in preschool - about an hour during an eight-hour day.

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education recommends a two-hour physical activity requirement during a six-hour preschool day.

As in studies of older children, this study found boys were considerably more active than girls.

This suggests efforts to encourage more activity in girls should begin early, the researchers said.

About 56 percent of 3- to-5-year-olds are in preschools. More than 10 percent of 4- and 5-year-olds were overweight in 1994, compared with 5.8 percent in 1974.

Pate, 57 and a father of two, said that, like most people, he had pictured preschoolers as little bundles of energy always on the move. But like other Americans, kids live in an environment in which people do less walking and stair climbing, and more electronic gaming and TV watching than previous generations did.

Pate said it is hard to know whether preschools promote less activity than they used to.

"But my concern is that all the concern about academic performance and readiness for first grade is producing changes in preschool and early childhood development centers that appears to be reducing play time and increasing time spent on early academic learning activities," he said.

Not that early-learning activities are bad.

"But we do have to remember that young children learn by moving ... by interacting with other kids and their environment," Pate said.

One preschool that takes that philosophy to heart is Eastminster Day School on Trenholm Road.

Most kids there get close to two hours of activity a day, Director Mele Baize said, and many also sign up for later programs, such as gymnastics, dance and karate.

With the press of activities aimed to familiarize little scholars with shapes, numbers and ABCs, it can be a challenge to fit in exercise, she said. It helps that the preschool, next to Eastminster Presbyterian Church, has two age-appropriate playgrounds and access to the church gym.

Pate said the size, resources and equipment at preschools play a role in whether they promote healthy levels of activity, but it's also a matter of philosophy.

"I really think that if directors of preschools and people who work in preschools are sensitized to this issue, we can readily influence this," he said.

Pate wants pediatricians to talk to parents about kids' activity levels and urge them to consider this factor when they pick preschools.

His advice for parents?

"Turn the TV off," Pate said.

"Tell your children to go outside and play."