Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for the Early Years (aged 0–4 years)

Abstract

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), with assistance from multiple partners, stakeholders, and researchers, developed the first Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for the Early Years (aged 0-4 years). These national guidelines were created in response to an urgent call from public health, health care, child care, and fitness practitioners for healthy active living guidance for the early years. The guideline development process was informed by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument and the evidence assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The recommendations are informed by evidence from a systematic review that examined the relationships between physical activity and health indicators (healthy body weight, bone and skeletal health, motor skill development, psychosocial health, cognitive development, and cardio-metabolic disease risk factors) for three age groups (infants aged <1 year; toddlers aged 1-2 years; preschoolers aged 3-4 years). The new guidelines include a preamble to provide context, followed by the specific recommendations. The final guidelines benefitted from an extensive on-line consultation process with input from over 900 domestic and international stakeholders, end-users, and key informants. The final guideline recommendations state that for healthy growth and development, infants (aged <1 year) should be physically active several times daily - particularly through interactive floor-based play. Toddlers (aged 1-2 years) and preschoolers (aged 3-4 years) should accumulate at least 180 min of physical activity at any intensity spread throughout the day, including a variety of activities in different environments, activities that develop movement skills, and progression toward at least 60 min of energetic play by 5 years of age. More daily physical activity provides greater benefits.

Physical activity guidelines and preschooler's obesity status

“…For TPA, we followed the guidelines of UK recommendations, Australian National Physical Activity Recommendations for children 0-5 years and Canadá recommendations, [10][11][12] calculating the proportion of children who spent at least 3 h per day active, (X3 h TPA). For MVPA, we calculated the proportion of children who spent at least 1 h per day (X1 h MVPA).…”

“…8,9 Recent PA guidelines from UK, Australia and Canada recommend that preschool children accumulate at least 3 h of PA across an entire day. [10][11][12] In addition, the Canadian guidelines recommended that preschool children accumulate at least 1 h of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) daily. 12 The accurate assessment of PA is extremely important when examining the relationships between PA and health.…”

“…[10][11][12] In addition, the Canadian guidelines recommended that preschool children accumulate at least 1 h of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) daily. 12 The accurate assessment of PA is extremely important when examining the relationships between PA and health. Accelerometry has become a commonly used and accepted measure of PA and is the preferred method over the last decade on epidemiological studies in young children.…”

Parental education and perception of outdoor playing time for preschoolers

“…Some behaviors such as increased sedentary time has been described and can have an impact on health indicators, quality of life and the functional autonomy of populations 1 . Different national governments have proposed action plans to reduce obesity that include providing safe places for children to be physically active 2 . Recent physical activity (PA) guidelines from the UK, Australia and Canada recommend that preschool children should accumulate at least 3 hours of PA throughout a day.…”

Increasing Canadian paediatricians’ awareness and use of the new Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for ages 0 to 17 years

“…The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) has endorsed the guidelines and has recommended paediatricians and family physicians use them to counsel families to increase physical activity and reduce screen time (9). For the physical activity guidelines, it is recommended that children aged <1 year are physically active several times a day (5), children aged 2-4 years are physically active at any intensity for at least 180 minutes a day (5), and children and youth aged 5-17 years are physically active at moderate-to vigorous-intensity for at least 60 minutes a day (8). For the sedentary behaviour guidelines, it is recommended children aged <2 years engage in no screen time (6), children 2-4 years engage in under 1 hour a day of screen time (6), and children 5-17 years engage in 2 hours a day or less of recreational screen time (7).…”