Adapting the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment: A Cross-Country Case Study of Improving Early Childhood Health Environments in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Child overweight and obesity is a critical global health issue with substantial individual and societal impacts necessitating early intervention to establish healthy habits. Health promoting early childhood education (ECE) settings are important as most young children attend ECEs in high- and middle-income countries. Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAPSACC) is an evidence-based approach to support improvements to ECE environment for improving child health.

Staff-reported barriers and facilitators to the implementation of healthcare interventions within regional and rural areas: a rapid review.

Background: Individuals in rural areas consistently demonstrate higher mortality and morbidity rates, and poorer access to healthcare, compared to their metropolitan counterparts. Optimizing the implementation of evidence-based interventions can reduce these inequities. Existing literature outlines numerous barriers and facilitators to the implementation of healthcare interventions, but these are generally not specific to rural areas.

Examining Changes in Implementation of Priority Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Practices, and Related Barriers, Over Time in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Services: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.

Promoting healthy eating and physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is recommended within guidelines and supported by health promotion programs; however, implementation is suboptimal. Evidence suggests implementation within the sector varies over time; however, this has not been empirically examined in relation to implementation barriers. This study aims to: (1) describe changes in the prevalence of, and barriers to, implementation of priority healthy eating and physical activity practices; and (2) explore the associations between such barriers and implementation.

The impact of early childhood education and care-based interventions on child physical activity, anthropometrics, fundamental movement skills, cognitive functioning, and social-emotional wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This review assessed the effectiveness of ECEC-based interventions to improve child physical activity, and intervention impact on child weight-based anthropometrics, fundamental movement skills (FMS), cognitive functioning, and social-emotional wellbeing. Adverse effects and costs were assessed. Finch et al's 2014 systematic review was updated.

A protocol of a pilot randomised trial (Action-RESPOND) to support rural and regional communities with implementing community-based systems thinking obesity prevention initiatives.

Background: Over a quarter of children aged 2-17 years living in Australia are overweight or obese, with a higher prevalence reported in regional and remote communities. Systems thinking approaches that seek to support communities to generate and implement locally appropriate solutions targeting intertwined environmental, political, sociocultural, and individual determinants of obesity have the potential to ameliorate this. There have however been reported challenges with implementation of such initiatives, which may be strengthened by incorporating implementation science methods.

Assessing the scalability of evidence-based healthy eating and physical activity interventions in early childhood education and care: A cross-sectional study of end-user perspectives.

Objectives: To describe early childhood education and care (ECEC) services: i) perceptions regarding the scalability of healthy eating and physical activity interventions; and ii) associations between scalability and service characteristics.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a randomly selected sample of ECEC services across Australia. The scalability of 12 healthy eating and physical activity interventions was assessed using items based on the Intervention Scalability Assessment Tool.

The Effectiveness of Strategies to Improve User Engagement With Digital Health Interventions Targeting Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Overweight and Obesity: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Digital health interventions (DHIs) are effective in improving poor nutrition, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity. There is evidence suggesting that the impact of DHIs may be enhanced by improving user engagement. However, little is known about the overall effectiveness of strategies on engagement with DHIs.

Assessing the scalability of healthy eating interventions within the early childhood education and care setting: secondary analysis of a Cochrane systematic review.

Objective: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a recommended setting for the delivery of health eating interventions 'at scale' (i.e. to large numbers of childcare services) to improve child public health nutrition.

Interventions to prevent or cease electronic cigarette use in children and adolescents.

Background: The prevalence of e-cigarette use has increased globally amongst children and adolescents in recent years. In response to the increasing prevalence and emerging evidence about the potential harms of e-cigarettes in children and adolescents, leading public health organisations have called for approaches to address increasing e-cigarette use. Whilst evaluations of approaches to reduce uptake and use regularly appear in the literature, the collective long-term benefit of these is currently unclear.

Dissemination of public health research evidence and guidelines to Australian Early Childhood Education and Care staff: Views about source, content and format.

Issue Addressed: Effective dissemination of public health research and evidence-based guidelines to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) staff is critical for promoting research transfer and uptake and achieving positive outcomes for children.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during August 2021 to March 2022, with a sub-sample of Australian ECEC services participating in a larger survey completed online and via Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview. Survey items assessed: influential source for receiving research, type of content that would influence decisions to adopt research and preferred formats for receiving research.

Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years.

Background: Dietary intake during early childhood can have implications on child health and developmental trajectories. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are recommended settings to deliver healthy eating interventions as they provide access to many children during this important period. Healthy eating interventions delivered in ECEC settings can include strategies targeting the curriculum (e.

Overcoming challenges in conducting systematic reviews in implementation science: a methods commentary.

Consolidation of the literature using systematic reviews is a critical way to advance a discipline and support evidence-based decision-making in healthcare. However, unique challenges exist that impact the conduct of systematic reviews in implementation science. In this commentary, we reflect on our combined experience to describe five key challenges unique to systematic reviews of primary implementation research.

The impact of an e-newsletter or animated video to disseminate outdoor free-play information in relation to COVID-19 guidelines in New South Wales early childhood education and care services: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: State-based Guidelines were issued for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services (caring for children 0-6 years) recommending greater time outdoors and inclusion of indoor-outdoor programs to facilitate social distancing to reduce spread of COVID-19. The aim of this 3-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) was to examine the impact of different dissemination strategies on increasing ECEC service intentions to adopt recommendations from the Guidelines.

Methods: This was a post-intervention only RCT.

A rapid review of the scalability of interventions targeting obesity prevention in infants.

Issue Addressed: Obesity in children is one of the most significant public health issues globally. Given the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in children, there is a need to identify effective obesity prevention efforts that can be delivered at scale to improve child health. We aimed to (i) identify obesity prevention interventions targeted at children aged 0-2 that have been scaled-up, and their relative efficacy compared to their pre-scale trial, (ii) describe adaptations made, and the extent to which factors related to scalability have been reported.

Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years.

Background: Dietary intake during early childhood can have implications on child health and developmental trajectories. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are recommended settings to deliver healthy eating interventions as they provide access to many children during this important period. Healthy eating interventions delivered in ECEC settings can include strategies targeting the curriculum (e.

Dissemination of public health research to prevent non-communicable diseases: a scoping review.

Background: Dissemination is a critical element of the knowledge translation pathway, and a necessary step to ensure research evidence is adopted and implemented by key end users in order to improve health outcomes. However, evidence-based guidance to inform dissemination activities in research is limited. This scoping review aimed to identify and describe the scientific literature examining strategies to disseminate public health evidence related to the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Do the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) strategies adequately address sustainment?

Background: Sustainability science is an emerging area within implementation science. There is limited evidence regarding strategies to best support the continued delivery and sustained impact of evidence-based interventions (EBIs). To build such evidence, clear definitions, and ways to operationalize strategies specific and/or relevant to sustainment are required.

Exploratory analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial of a multi-strategy intervention delivered via online canteens on improving the nutritional quality of primary school students' pre-ordered foods & drinks at recess.

School canteens are a recommended setting to deliver public health nutrition strategies given their wide reach, and frequent use by children. Online canteens, where users (i.e.

Parent-reported compared with researcher-measured child height and weight: impact on body mass index classification in Australian pre-school aged children.

Issue Addressed: Parent-reported data may provide a practical and cheap way for estimating young children's weight status. This study aims to compare the validity and reliability of parent-reported height and weight to researcher-measured data for pre-school aged children (aged 2-6 years).

Methods: This was a nested study within a cluster randomised controlled trial (October 2016-April 2017), conducted within 32 Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services across New South Wales, Australia.

Describing the evidence-base for research engagement by health care providers and health care organisations: a scoping review.

Background: Having a research-engaged health and medical workforce is associated with improvements in clinical outcomes for patients. As such, there has been significant government investment internationally to support health care organisations and services to increase staff engagement with research.

Objectives: This scoping review sought to provide an overview of the literature describing strategies employed to increase research engagement by health care providers and organisations, and to undertake a qualitative analysis to generate a list of research engagement strategies.

Interventions to prevent obesity in school-aged children 6-18 years: An update of a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis including studies from 2015-2021.

Background: Childhood obesity remains a global public health priority due to the enormous burden it generates. Recent surveillance data suggests there has been a sharp increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cochrane review of childhood obesity prevention interventions (0-18 years) updated to 2015 is the most rigorous and comprehensive review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on this topic.