Effect of preschool childcare on school-aged children's adiposity in Quebec, Canada

Area of Science:

• Child Health Research
• Public Health Policy
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Public childcare centers must adhere to nutrition and physical activity guidelines.
• The long-term effects of public childcare on childhood adiposity remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the impact of universal preschool childcare on children's Body Mass Index (BMI) in elementary school.
• To investigate whether these effects differ between children from socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged families.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 1657 children in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (1998-2010).
• Regressed BMI z-scores (BMIz) from ages 6 to 13 on childcare arrangements from ages 2 to 5.
• Employed Bayesian multilevel linear regression and g-computation to estimate average treatment effects for four childcare profiles.

Main Results:

• Attending center-based care was associated with a higher mean BMIz in kindergarten compared to other childcare types.
• By age 12, BMIz increased across all childcare profiles, with diminishing differences between them.
• The initial rise in BMI associated with center-based care did not show a significant long-term impact.

Conclusions:

• Center-based childcare showed a temporary association with increased BMI, but not a lasting effect compared to informal care.
• No substantial long-term impact on childhood adiposity was observed overall or specifically for less advantaged children.
• Findings suggest that while short-term BMI changes may occur, universal preschool childcare does not appear to have a significant enduring effect on childhood adiposity.