Healthy incentive scheme in the Irish full-day-care pre-school setting

Area of Science:

• Early Childhood Education
• Public Health Nutrition
• Childhood Obesity Prevention

Background:

• Preschools serving children aged 0-5 years for over 4 hours daily require research into nutrition and physical activity practices.
• Obesity prevention in preschools is crucial, focusing on healthy food and lifestyle habits.
• Existing guidelines for early years' settings often lack robust regulations, with childcare environments primarily assessed for safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review international guidelines and recommendations for health promotion best practices in preschool settings.
• To examine service and resource provision, food service, food availability, and parental involvement.
• To outline intervention programs and assessment tools, and present an intervention scheme for Irish full-day-care preschools.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of international guidelines and recommendations.
• Identification and description of intervention programs and assessment tools.
• Development of an intervention scheme based on best practices.

Main Results:

• Cross-sectional research indicates suboptimal nutrition and physical activity practices in preschool settings.
• Limited environmental and policy-level interventions targeting childcare providers have been documented globally.
• No evidence of such interventions was found in Ireland prior to this study.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant need for evidence-based interventions to improve nutrition and physical activity in preschools.
• Implementing comprehensive health promotion strategies, including parental involvement, is essential.
• The developed intervention scheme offers a model for enhancing health practices in Irish full-day-care preschools.