Nutrition and Physical Activity Environments of Home-Based Child Care: What Hispanic Providers Have to Say.
BACKGROUND
It is important to understand the perceptions and beliefs of family child care providers (FCCPs) regarding which factors influence children's physical activity (PA), screen-time (ST), and dietary behaviors in order to develop and implement appropriate obesity prevention interventions. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the aforementioned perceptions and beliefs of FCCPs in Rhode Island.


METHODS
Four focus groups (n = 30) were held with FCCPs. Providers were female, Hispanic, and Spanish speaking. Providers were asked about different aspects of feeding, PA, and ST behaviors. Themes were coded using NVivo10 (QSR International Pty Ltd, Doncaster, Victoria, Australia). Content analysis was used to analyze final themes.


RESULTS
Providers understood the importance of providing opportunities for healthy eating and PA for the children they cared for, but there was room for improvement, especially with regard to certain feeding and ST practices. Several barriers were evident, including the lack of physical infrastructure for PA, cultural beliefs and practices related to child feeding, and difficulties working with parents to provide consistent messages across environments.


CONCLUSIONS
Given that FCCPs are aware of the importance of healthy eating and PA, there is a need to address the specific barriers they face, and operationalize some of their knowledge into practical everyday actions. This formative work will inform the development of a culturally relevant, multicomponent intervention for ethnically diverse FCCPs to improve the food and PA environments of their homes, which should, in turn, improve the dietary, PA, and ST behaviors of the 2- to 5-year-old children they care for.
1 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island , Kingston, RI.
Alison
A
Tovar
1 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island , Kingston, RI.
Noereem Z
NZ
Mena
2 Institute for Community Health Promotion, Brown University School of Public Health , Providence, RI.
Patricia
P
Risica
2 Institute for Community Health Promotion, Brown University School of Public Health , Providence, RI.
Gemma
G
Gorham
3 Department of Human Development and Family Studies and Center for Health Interventions and Prevention, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT.
Kim M
KM
Gans
D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000379:methods*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D005518:Food Preferences; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012237:Rhode Island / Q000453:epidemiology; D012931:Social Environment