Children's physical activity presentation sparks interest
Published on 31 October, 2012
Visiting Belgian academic Professor Greet Cardon addressed a captivated audience during her free 'Research Unplugged' presentation at Rockhampton's Criterion Hotel recently.
The event, hosted by the Institute for Health and Social Science Research at CQUniversity, attracted about 25 people, most of whom were representatives of various community organisations, preschools and day-care centres.
Prof Greet Cardon chats with Dr Corneel Vandelanotte who helped to host her visit to CQUni
During the course of the presentation, Prof Cardon, visiting from Ghent University in Belgium, discussed research that examined how levels of physical activity could be promoted to young children and what intervention strategies could be employed.
One of the many interesting general points made was that preschool in Belgium is attended by children aged between 2½ years and 6 years, with some similarity to our day-care and preschool system, with the difference being the service is free to all.
Prof Cardon used examples and results from several different research studies to illustrate the need for increased physical activity in what is generally considered a very active cohort of children. One of the studies discovered that a sample of preschoolers spent 50-80% of their ‘awaken time' in sedentary pursuits, which is hardly what many would expect. The concern here is of the long term health effects of continuing such an inactive life.
Prof Cardon delivers her presentation
Of further interest to the audience was discovering the well-known 10,000 Steps program has also been taken up as a community health project in Ghent. Prof Cardon said she was excited to see the 10,000 Steps signs around various spots in Rockhampton!
There was much animated discussion during question time and following the presentation with many interested in Prof Cardon's talk pointing out the ToyBox intervention program currently underway across six different European countries and its use of the kangaroo as its logo.
More information on ToyBox can be found here: http://www.toybox-study.eu/
Research Unplugged presentations are free to the public and are generally held on a bi-monthly basis.
