5 research outputs found
Does Childcare Work Promote Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Health? A Cross-Sectional Study of Danish Childcare Workers Based on Accelerometry and Heart Rate Measurements
Childcare workers are reported to have poor cardiorespiratory fitness and health. The Goldilocks Work Principle argues that productive work should be designed with the right composition, intensity and alternations of physical behaviors so that workers get fit and healthy. The purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) composition, (2) intensity and (3) alternations of physical behaviors during work and leisure among childcare workers. Data were collected using accelerometers and heart rate monitors over five workdays among 51 childcare workers at five Danish childcare institutions. Workers mainly spent their work time sedentary (43.0%), spent little time (0.7%) at sufficiently high cardiometabolic intensity to increase cardiorespiratory fitness and often alternated between physical behaviors (67.0% occurred in bouts of <5 min). These findings indicate that the workers have a composition of behaviors at work dominated by sedentary time, little time with high cardiometabolic intensity, and frequent alternations between behaviors. During leisure, workers spent more time sedentary (59.4%), more time at high cardiometabolic intensity (3.4%) and less time occurred in bouts <5 min (38.7%). We see a potential for promoting cardiorespiratory fitness and health of childcare workers by redesigning the way they play with the children, so that work time with high cardiometabolic intensity is increased
Inter-Rater Reliability of Ergonomic Work Demands for Childcare Workers Using the Observation Instrument TRACK
The aim of this study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of a newly developed instrument-TRACK (observaTion woRk demAnds Childcare worK) for observations of ergonomic work demands in childcare work. Two trained raters conducted thirty hours of concurrent observation of fifteen childcare workers in three different day nurseries. Inter-rater reliability of ergonomic work demands was evaluated using Gwet’s Agreement Coefficient (AC1) and interpreted by the Landis and Koch benchmark scale. Twenty ergonomic work demand items were evaluated. Inter-rater reliability was ‘almost perfect’ for nine items (AC1 0.81–1.00), ‘substantial’ for four items (AC1 0.61–0.80), ‘moderate’ for four items (AC1 0.41–0.60), ‘fair’ for two items (AC1 0.21–0.40), and ‘slight’ (AC1 0.00–0.20) for one item. No items had ‘poor’ (AC1 < 0.00) agreement. The instrument is reliable for assessing ergonomic work demands in childcare in real-life settings
Does childcare work promote cardiorespiratory fitness and health? A crossâsectional study of Danish childcare workers based on accelerometry and heart rate measurements
Childcare workers are reported to have poor cardiorespiratory fitness and health. The Goldilocks Work Principle argues that productive work should be designed with the right composition, intensity and alternations of physical behaviors so that workers get fit and healthy. The purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) composition, (2) intensity and (3) alternations of physical behaviors during work and leisure among childcare workers. Data were collected using accelerometers and heart rate monitors over five workdays among 51 childcare workers at five Danish childcare institutions. Workers mainly spent their work time sedentary (43.0%), spent little time (0.7%) at sufficiently high cardiometabolic intensity to increase cardiorespiratory fitness and often alternated between physical behaviors (67.0% occurred in bouts of <5 min). These findings indicate that the workers have a composition of behaviors at work dominated by sedentary time, little time with high cardiometabolic intensity, and frequent alternations between behaviors. During leisure, workers spent more time sedentary (59.4%), more time at high cardiometabolic intensity (3.4%) and less time occurred in bouts <5 min (38.7%). We see a potential for promoting cardiorespiratory fitness and health of childcare workers by redesigning the way they play with the children, so that work time with high cardiometabolic intensity is increased
Risks, solutions and implementation of a participatory ergonomic intervention in 16 day nurseries: A process evaluation of the TOY wait-list cluster-randomized controlled trial
More evidence-based initiatives to reduce physical work demands during childcare work to prevent ill health and promote the ability to care for the children among childcare workers are needed. In a process evaluation performed alongside a two-arm, cluster-randomized study with a waiting-list control among 16 day nurseries lasting 20-weeks that significantly reduced musculoskeletal pain-related sickness absence we investigated 1) risk factors and solutions perceived by the childcare workers, and 2) implementation of the intervention. Most of the perceived risk factors were categorized as physical (70Â %) with most of the suggested solutions also being categorized as physical (61Â %). The remaining risk factors were categorized as organizational risk factors (16Â %) and psychosocial risk factors (13Â %). The remaining solutions were distributed almost equally between the organizational (20Â %) and psychosocial categories (19Â %). About half (51Â %) of the action plans showed high implementation success. Of 16 workshops, 100Â % were delivered with a fidelity of 83Â %. Average participation, exposure, responsiveness and implementation were 68Â %, 56Â %, 83Â % and 47Â %. The implementation score differed for timing of intervention but not for nursery characteristics. This study showed that complex and diverse participatory ergonomic interventions should focus on physical, organizational and psychosocial factors to have a positive effect
Can childcare work be designed to promote high intensity physical activity for improved fitness and health? A proof of concept study of the Goldilocks principle
Childcare workers are reported to have high variation in physical activity during work hours, but also to sit for about half of the workday and have almost no high intensity physical activity (HIPA). No study has investigated if their work can be re-designed to introduce HIPA, thus promoting fitness and health according to the Goldilocks principle. This study investigated the feasibility of designing pedagogical games (âGoldilocks-gamesâ) intended to lead to more HIPA. Heart rate was measured in nineteen childcare workers during Goldilocks-games, and compared to measurements during a regular workday. Worker perceptions of feasibility, and researcher observations of contextual factors were also collected. The Goldilocks-games (33 min) elicited significantly more HIPA (18/33 min) compared to the most active period of equal length on a regular workday (0.5/33 min). Seventy-four-percent of the childcare workers reported that it was feasible to integrate the Goldilocks-games pedagogically, and seventy-two-percent could see themselves using them. Thus, we found it possible to re-design a work task in childcare according to the Goldilocks principle so that it leads to substantial time with HIPA. The sustainability of Goldilocks-games in childcare, and their effectiveness in improving fitness and health among childcare workers, needs to be tested in further studies