Promoting Active Play in Preschoolers for Optimal Health and Development

Obesity and poor mental health present significant challenges to childhood health and wellbeing, and to longer-term health, academic success, and economic output. The prevalence of these conditions in early childhood is increasing and a significant proportion of children experience one or both during childhood. Intervening early supports children to form healthy habits and build resilience, offering economic value for money. Active play (AP), defined as voluntary engagement in physical activity of any intensity that is fun and/or rewarding and driven by intrinsic motivation, potentially offers one way to encourage healthy weight and good mental health. As the predominant form of physical activity for young children, it provides opportunities for physical exertion, and play offers fun ways for children to explore their environment and foster positive connections. Promoting AP may therefore be a cost-effective way to help prevent obesity and promote good mental health in young children. This programme development grant (PDG) will provide important evidence about AP in the UK, as a first step in the development of a programme seeking to implement and evaluate an AP intervention in preschool-aged children (operationalised as children aged 1-4 years) to support healthy weight and good mental health. It will build vital foundations for a programme grant, answering key research questions through four linked work packages (WPs). The work aims to a) ascertain which population groups might benefit most from AP interventions; b) identify existing (successful) interventions that support preschoolers AP; c) understand priorities and perspectives of key stakeholders; and d) build a multi-sector involvement and engagement network. WP1 will generate new data (UK Preschool Active Play Study, UKPAPS) and use routinely collected data to better understand UK preschoolers AP. It will also identify areas of greatest need based on geographical and socio-demographic indicators with regards to AP, weight status, mental health and developmental outcomes. By undertaking a systematic evidence review, WP2 will generate information about the existing interventions that aim to promote AP in preschool-aged children (across published and grey literature) to inform what an effective and equitable intervention may look like. In WP3, qualitative research with a wide range of stakeholders will help to understand their key priorities and perspectives in relation to AP and what key effectiveness metrics would be important to them. WP4 will develop a cross-sector network to support and advise throughout the project and co-develop/ adapt an intervention in the next stage of research. Cumulatively, this project will provide the first population-level data about AP in UK preschool-aged children and evidence to inform future intervention co-adaption/development. It has PPIE embedded throughout and working with a wide range of collaborators and PPIE advisors will ensure applicability of this work to a broad range of contexts, with the ultimate aim of reducing inequalities in child health. Findings will be disseminated through academic, local and sector-specific outputs, as well as research and public meetings, to ensure this work reaches a broad audience and has standalone value in addition to contributing to a further programme grant.