Ethnic differences in the home environment and physical activity behaviors among low-income, minority preschoolers in Texas.

Purpose: To evaluate the ethnic differences in the home physical activity and screen time environment of preschoolers enrolled in Head Start.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Sixteen Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) Head Start centers, Texas.

Subjects: Seven hundred and six preschoolers enrolled in HCDE Head Start centers and their parents. MEASURES. Items from the parent-reported Healthy Home Survey evaluating the home physical activity environment and the Nutrition Screening form evaluating screen time.

Analysis: Mixed model linear and logistic regression analysis.

Results: Of the parents, 75.06% were overweight or obese. Hispanic parents were more likely to have a yard or open space (p = .014) and usable play equipment in the yard (p = .019) for their children to play in compared to African-Americans. Conversely, more African-American parents reported having a television (TV) in their preschooler's bedroom (p = .032) and were less likely to cut down their child's TV viewing time (p = .036). African-American preschoolers were reportedly more likely to eat while watching TV (p = .009), play video games for ≥ 2 hours on weekdays (p = .018) and have computer time for ≥ 2 hours on weekends (p = .007), compared to Hispanics.

Conclusion: The Hispanic participants of this study had a healthier home environment for physical activity and screen time as compared with their African-American counterparts. Future interventions targeting lifestyle change need to address these factors in an ethnic-specific manner.