Your Faculty / Fall 2005 - Faculty of Medicine - University of Calgary

More documents

Recommendations

Info

8 Service to Society Your Faculty / Fall 2005 (L – R) Colleen, Richard and Alyssa Fairhead Y-Be-Active Investigating activity levels in preschoolers By Erin Carpenter O n an overcast Monday evening, five-year-old Alyssa Fairhead has just returned home from ballet lessons. She’s still wearing her bright yellow tutu, and squirms between her parents sitting on the sofa. On the mantle over the fireplace is a photo of Richard Fairhead running a race. This is clearly an active family. “I’m training for triathlons,” Richard says. “We’re both pretty involved in running, and we’ve taken up swimming recently too,” adds Colleen Fairhead. So it seemed natural that Colleen was curious when she saw a notice at Alyssa’s daycare about a study investigating physical activity in preschool children. “I thought it would be interesting to see how Alyssa compared to other kids, and even ourselves too; to see how it all relates.” The Fairheads signed up for the study, conducted by Dr. Marja Cantell and Dr. Deborah Dewey of the Department of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine. Cantell and Dewey – also adjunct professors in psychology and kinesiology – are using funding from the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and some internal funding to pursue their study, Y-Be-Active. Cantell says the reasons for pursuing the study are straightforward: “First, very few studies have looked at children this age (three to six). Second, we are including parents in a way that no other study has,” she says. “We are looking at the family as an important factor affecting the child’s physical activity.” Cantell and Dewey are also examining other determinants of physical activity, such as the amount of time children spend in day- Dr. Deborah Dewey is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary and a member of the Behavioural Research Unit at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. In addition to her academic responsibilities, she is the mother of three very active school-age children. Her research focus is on motor development in children and its relationship to neurocognitive and psychosocial functioning and physical activity.
Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Service to Society 9 care or at home, access to safe play areas, season of the year, ethnic background and temperament, as well as health indicators such as nutrition, blood pressure and Body Mass Index. “One of the first things we wanted to do was to see if we could develop a valid and feasible caregiver report measure of physical activity that could be used in larger epidemiological studies,” says Dewey. To that end, Cantell and Dewey developed a daily activity-recording sheet to be filled out by parents and daycare providers. They also created a personal digital assistant (PDA) program to collect observational data whether at home, at the playground or on the skating rink. The study also aims to develop measurement tools that are less expensive and more practical for larger, long-term studies. “Tools such as direct observation of physical activity or the use of accelerometers – motion sensors attached to a belt during waking hours – are quite expensive and can only be used with very small groups,” says Dewey. The researchers hope up to 50 families will take part in their study. When the Fairheads signed up, Cantell and Dewey made an initial home visit, where they took the family’s body measurements: blood pressure, weight and height. Then they handed over questionnaires and daily activity record sheets, along with accelerometers for each. The Fairheads wore the red motion sensors for five days at a time – first in June of 2004, then again this past April. They took off the belts only to sleep, shower or swim. Young Alyssa Fairhead took it all in stride. “She was wearing it from the time she got up to the time she went to bed,” Colleen says. In fact, Alyssa wore it for everything – eating, activities at school, her studies, reading books – all the time. “It feels comfortable,” says Alyssa. During the same five days, Alyssa’s daycare providers were also asked to keep records of all her activities. Cantell predicts that what happens with these children could be significant. “How physically active they are from a very early age probably has a huge impact in their later lives,” she says. Although still in its early stages, the initial findings of the study are interesting. “There’s such variability among the families in the amount of physical activity they actually engage in,” says Dewey. “Some families are very active, whereas other families spend a lot of time sitting in front of the television or the computer.” Dewey says such findings could portend a big impact. “Children who aren’t very active early on may not go on to develop patterns of higher physical activity as they get older. As physical activity is very important in terms of long term outcomes for obesity, being overweight, or even psychological wellbeing, low levels of physical activity in childhood could have long term consequences.” Another significant finding at this point: “Parents of children of this age group don’t really take part in organized sports a lot. That’s just the life stage they’re at,” Cantell says. “Mothers are relatively involved in general physical activity with their children, but almost 40 per cent of fathers say they are not involved at all,” says Dewey. Fathers have indicated they don’t have time for it. Both researchers acknowledge their work is preliminary. In the long run, they plan to also study physical activity in children with special needs. Meanwhile, Colleen Fairhead is looking forward to the results of the initial research. “If it does raise awareness for people in keeping their kids active, then I think that’s a great achievement in itself.” (L – R) Dr. Marja Cantell and Dr. Deborah Dewey Fa m i ly G u i d e to P h y s i c a l A c t i v i t y f o r C h i l d r e n With growing concerns of obesityrelated health problems in children, Health Canada has produced a series of guides to help families, educators and community leaders motivate kids to get active. Below are tips on getting six to nine year-old kids moving and creating new lifestyles for happier and healthier children. Develop awareness – involve children in the decision-making process Make a plan – get kids to agree to a plan Set goals – this will help kids check their own progress Give feedback – praise and reward small steps Recognize change – reinforce new behaviour and celebrate successes For more information on Health Canada’s Physical Activity Guide, go to www.healthcanada.ca/paguide or call 1.888.334.9769. Dr. Marja Cantell is assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary and a member of the Behavioural Research Unit at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Before coming to Calgary in 2002 she was at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences in Jyvaskyla, Finland. She studies motor development, physical activity and health outcomes and enjoys a variety of sports with her husband and preschool-aged daughter to keep her family active.
Page 1 and 2: Your Faculty A Faculty of Medicine
Page 3 and 4: Contents Vol 2 Issue 1 / Fall 2005
Page 5 and 6: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 New Initia
Page 7 and 8: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Research 5
Page 9: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Education
Page 13 and 14: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Internatio
Page 15 and 16: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Alumni Pro
Page 17 and 18: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Our People
Page 19 and 20: Your Faculty / Fall 2005 Our People

Your Faculty / Fall 2005 - Faculty of Medicine - University of Calgary

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?