Study Description
The main purpose of the study is to better understand heart health in the family childcare context. In particular, we are interested in the health of preschool-aged children and Family Child Care Providers. The study involves two visits:
Visit 1 (~3 hours):
During visit 1, we will take some health measurements of you and any preschool aged children in your care that have parental permission. We have tried to make these activities as fun as possible for the children and found that most children enjoy our activities.
For children, measures include:
- Height, weight, body composition and blood pressure
- Food preferences with Plucky the Pea
- Outdoor games with the kids to measure their motor skills
- A Superhero game where the children wear superhero belts that track their activities
- Videotaping of the children to capture their physical activity. As you are well aware, young children move all over the place and capturing their activity can be tricky.
- Videotaping of a meal time.
Only the researchers see the video tapes and results of the study. We keep everything either on a password protected server or in a filing cabinet in a locked room. Measures are minimally invasive and most children find them to be fun. In order to videotape the true setting, we also have consents for parents of younger or older children. This is so that parents can decide whether or not they can be a part of these mealtime or playtime videoing.
For providers, measures include:
- Height, weight, body composition, and blood pressure
- Blood sugar and cholesterol through a finger stick
- Physical activity through a small device on your waist that we ask that you wear for four days
- Survey questions
Visit 2 (~1 hour):
Visit two is just for providers. We pick up the device that measures physical activity. We also pick up the completed survey. At that time, we also ask providers to complete an online nutrition survey on a computer we provide. We have found that when possible we try to schedule this visit for nap time to make it a bit easier for providers to concentrate.
For participating, you and each participating child receives an information packet with results from the study along with other relevant health information. For providers, we are currently approved to provide a $40 Wal-mart gift card for your time and efforts.
If you are interested, contact us at 217-244-9586 or childcareresearch@illinois.edu.
To watch our video, click here.
To watch Dr. Angela Wiley explain why child care provider health is important, click here.