ABSTRACT
Access to environmental opportunities can favor children's learning and cognitive development. The objectives is to construct an index that synthesizes environmental learning opportunities for preschoolers considering the home environment and verify whether the index can predict preschoolers' cognitive development. A quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted with 51 preschoolers using a multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). The criteria used for drawing up the index were supported by the literature and subdivided in Group A "Resources from the house" extracted from HOME Inventory including: (1) to have three or more puzzles; (2) have at least ten children's books; (3) be encouraged to learn the alphabet; (4) take the family out at least every 2 weeks. Group B "Screens" (5) caution with using television; (6) total screen time in day/minutes. Group C "Parental Schooling" (7) maternal and paternal education. Pearson correlation analyses and univariate linear regression were performed to verify the relationship between the established index with cognitive test results. The index correlated with the total score of the mini-mental state exam (MMC) and verbal fluency test (VF) in the category of total word production and word production without errors. Multicriteria index explained 18% of the VF (total word production), 19% of the VF (total production of words without errors) and 17% of the MMC. The present multicriteria index has potential application as it synthesizes the preschooler's environmental learning opportunities and predicts domains of child cognitive development.
Subject(s)
Cognition , Learning , Child , Humans , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Active play opportunities seems to influence the level of physical activity during childhood. However, a gap remains about which environmental opportunities including the daycare physical environment could have a positive impact on the level of physical activity in preschoolers. OBJECTIVES: (1) To develop an index to measure the environmental opportunities of free active play for preschoolers of middle-income countries; (2) to check the relationship and contribution of the index to explain objectively the level of physical activity. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory study with 51 preschool children. The established criteria for the index according to the literature were: (1) Outdoor time on typical days of the week. (2) Outdoor time on a typical weekend day. (3) The presence of internal space and external environment in the child's home that allows playing. (4) Presence of patio with space for games at the school. (5) Presence of a playground with a toy at the school. We applied multi-attribute utility theory for the determination of the multicriteria index of physical environmental opportunities. Pearson's correlation analysis and simple linear regression were used to verify the association between the index and the physical activity level. RESULTS: The index showed a positive correlation with the level of physical activity, e.g., the average time of MVPA (r = 0.408, p = 0.003). The univariate linear regression demonstrated that the quality of physical environmental opportunities for physical activity explained 20% of the preschooler's classification as active and 16% of the time in moderate to vigorous physical activity (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Physical environmental opportunities for active play have a positive effect on physical activity in preschoolers and should be encouraged in different social segments.
