Manuscripts

Dev, D. A., Williams, N., Iruka, I., Garcia, A. S., Guo, Y., Patwardhan, I., ... & Sedani, A. (2018). Improving the Nutrition and Screen Time Environment Through Self-Assessment in Family Childcare Homes in Nebraska. Public health nutrition, 21(13), 2351-2359. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980018001416;

Dev et al. (2018) discussed how participation in Go NAP SAAC intervention has improved nutrition and screen time environment in 208 family childcare homes in 93 counties of Nebraska. After six months of training, participants demonstrated significant improvement in 14 of the 44 Child Nutrition items and 11 of the 12 Screen Time items. However, several best practices were not met after the intervention. For Child Nutrition: serving meals family-style, promoting visible support for healthy eating, planned nutrition education and written policy on child nutrition. For Screen Time: availability of television, offering families education onscreen time and having a written policy on screen time.

Dinkel, D., Dev, D., Guo, Y., Sedani, A., Hulse, E., Rida, Z., & Abel, K. (2020). Comparison of Urban and Rural Physical Activity and Outdoor Play Environments of Childcare Centers and Family Childcare Homes. Family & Community Health. DOI: 10.1097/FCH.0000000000000267

The purpose of this study was to compare achievement of meeting evidence-based physical activity childcare standards between: (1) Childcare centers and family childcare homes in urban areas; (2) Childcare centers and family childcare homes in rural areas; (3) Childcare centers across geographic location (urban-rural); and (4) Family childcare homes across geographic location (urban-rural). This was a cross-sectional study using the results from the Go NAPSACC baseline self-assessments for the physical activity sections. Both urban and rural childcare centers reported higher levels of offering portable play equipment, family education on children’s physical activity and outdoor play, and professional development compared to the family childcare homes. Family childcare homes reported higher supervision, verbal encouragement, participation in children’s physical activity, and offering enough portable play equipment for each child compared to the childcare centers in urban area. Rural family childcare homes reported higher amount of daily time provided for children’s indoor and outdoor physical activities, and availability of a large space for outdoor activities compared to the childcare centers. Lastly, urban childcare centers and family childcare homes reported higher adherence to the best practices than their rural counterparts. These findings provide evidences rural childcare settings in particular may be in need of unique and creative approaches to improve child health outcomes.

Dinkel, D., Rech, J.P., Guo, Y., Bice, M., Hulse, E., Behrends, D., Burger, C., & Dev, D. (2021). Examining Differences in Achievement of Physical Activity Best Practices Between Urban and Rural Child Care Facilities by Age. Early Childhood Education Journal, epub ahead of print, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01169-2

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the achievement of physical activity best practices between 207 urban and 218 rural childcare facilities who had completed the Go NAPSACC process by age-specific recommendations (infants, toddlers, and preschoolers) and in the overall physical activity environment. A majority of facilities reported exceeding best practices (79.5%); however, significant differences were found on 18 best practices with urban facilities outscoring their rural counterparts on 17 of these items. A comparison by age found that urban facilities reported higher achievement of best practices among infants (60%) in comparison to toddlers (40%) or preschoolers (30%). Future efforts should continue to explore the rural–urban context of physical activity practices across the early childhood age groups to ensure healthy physical development of children, with a special emphasis on supporting rural facilities.