(Press-News.org)
In an effort to address health disparities linked to low socioeconomic environments, a University of Massachusetts Amherst kinesiologist is partnering with Western Massachusetts preschools to implement a physical activity program for young children.
Sofiya Alhassan, professor of kinesiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, will measure the impact of a gross motor skills-based physical activity program on the cognitive development of 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in preschools in communities with low socioeconomic status (SES) in the Greater Springfield area.
“Given that most U.S. preschool-aged children spend the majority of their day in preschool centers, these centers are uniquely positioned to help children establish healthy lifestyles,” Alhassan says.
If the pilot study proves feasible, Alhassan plans to use the findings to support a subsequent large-scale randomized controlled trial to see if the intervention can effect sustained improvement in preschoolers’ cognitive health and gross motor skills.
“The end goal,” Alhassan says, “is to establish a proven intervention that can be easily integrated into preschool early education learning standards and help us to level the playing field.”
Social determinants of health have a major impact on people’s health, well-being and quality of life. In a broad sense, the conditions where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age affect a wide range of health, functioning and quality-of-life outcomes and risks, contributing to wide health disparities and inequities.
This is particularly evident in preschool-age children. Research has shown that being raised in a low socioeconomic environment contributes to higher-than-average levels of inattention and lower self-regulation in preschoolers, as well as lower performance in gross motor skills and cognition, such as executive function and memory.
These environmental disadvantages place young children at an increased risk for poor academic achievement and low physical activity levels, Alhassan explains.
“We know that low SES preschoolers also show slower gross motor skill development,” she says. “Gross motor skills form the building blocks for a healthy and active lifestyle since these skills must be mastered before the development of more complex motor skills. Physical activity, including gross motor skills learning, enhance neural development, particularly the development of areas associated with cognitive functions, including the frontal cortex and hippocampus.”
Alhassan will carry out the pilot project with funding from a two-year, $429,744 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Participants at the preschools will be randomly assigned to either a movement and cognition (MAC) or a control group. Intervention activities will be embedded into the Massachusetts early learning standard and implemented by trained classroom teachers.
Alhassan will collect data on executive function and memory, gross motor skills and physical activity levels at baseline, three-month and six-month intervals. She’ll also examine the preliminary efficacy of the intervention by evaluating study fidelity and factors such as intervention dosage.
END
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004261
Article Title: Age- and sex-specific hospital bed-day rates in people with and without type 2 diabetes: A territory-wide population-based cohort study of 1.5 million people in Hong Kong
Author Countries: China
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...
Bacteria make up more than 10% of all living things but until recently we had little realization that, as in humans, soil bacteria have internal clocks that synchronize their activities with the 24-hour cycles of day and night on Earth.
New research shows just how complex and sophisticated these bacterial circadian clocks are, clearing the way for an exciting new phase of study. This work will provide diverse opportunities, from precision timing of the use of antibiotics, to bioengineering smarter gut and soil microbiomes.
An international ...
Key Takeaways:
When news sites relax paywall access to their sites, they leverage the power of sampling to increase subscribers.
Temporarily suspending paywall restrictions on certain major stories or trends serves the public interest while conditioning new visitors to pay for access later.
BALTIMORE, MD, August 1, 2023 – A new study has revealed that when news sites temporarily relax or suspend restrictions tied to paywall access, they eventually see an increase in subscribers. This ...
Marine conservation experts have revealed the extent of marine megafauna catch by small-scale fisheries, in Thailand for the first time.
The Newcastle University study provides the first-ever estimate of the annual catch of marine megafauna species, including rays, sharks, sea turtles, dolphins, and dugongs, in Thailand’s small-scale fisheries – those fisheries using small boats, low tech equipment and often haul their fishing gear by hand.
Published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Research, the results ...
A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined nitrogen fixation among diazotrophs—microorganisms that can convert nitrogen into usable form for other plants and animals—living among sargassum. Sargassum, a brown macroalgae in the seaweed family, floats on the surface of the open ocean and provides habitat for a colorful array of marine life such as small fish, brine shrimp and other microorganisms. Previous studies have overlooked diazotrophs associated ...
North Carolina leads the nation for most households relying on private wells as a primary source of drinking water, with one in four households on private wells. These wells are not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, and most are not tested for contaminants, especially in low-income areas.
A new study published in Environmental Justice by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that private well testing and treatment levels were significantly predicted by race and income, even though high levels of contamination were equally distributed across the research areas.
“Although we found alarming levels of well water contamination ...
A Swansea University-led study revealed breastfeeding rates in Wales increased during the pandemic.
The research, which included all women in Wales who gave birth between 2018 and 2021, found that breastfeeding rates at six months were higher during Covid compared to the pre-pandemic period - with rates increasing from 16.6 per cent before the pandemic to 20.5 per cent in 2020.
The study also found a strong correlation between a mother's intention to breastfeed and the likelihood of exclusively breastfeeding ...
East Hanover, NJ – August 4, 2023 – People with disabilities maintained their job numbers, reflecting all-time highs in July, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – semi-monthly update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). nTIDE experts stated that more people with disabilities are engaged working and seeking work.
Month-to-Month nTIDE Numbers (comparing June 2023 to July 2023)
Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Jobs Report released today, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities (ages 16-64) ...
DENVER/Aug. 4, 2023 – A recent scientific paper published in the journal Microorganisms highlights the development of the first broad range of reptile cell lines, a significant feat that researchers say will help advance reptile conservation.
In the study, which was funded by Morris Animal Foundation and conducted by researchers at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, researchers established cell lines from a variety of reptiles, including crocodilians, snakes, turtles, tortoises and lizards. Cell lines are populations of cells from multicellular organisms that have been grown in a laboratory and can be used for a ...
Sarah Qureshy, a fourth-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College, has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) as one of four medical students nationwide to receive the 2023-24 ASH Medical Student Physician-Scientist (PhySci) Award.
The ASH PhySci Awards support first-, second- and third-year medical students looking to gain experience in hematology research under the mentorship of an ASH member and to learn more about the specialty. This award, which provides one-year $42,000 grant funding, will enable Qureshy to take a year off from her schooling to carry out an immersive project conducting laboratory, translational ...
