Do Australian children carry out recommended preventive child health behaviours? Insights from an online parent survey

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Baker, Sabine
Morawska, Alina
Mitchell, Amy E
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2020
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Abstract

Aim: To investigate (i) the proportion of Australian children who do not adhere to preventive child health behaviours, (ii) clustering of child health behaviours, (iii) the proportion of parents who are concerned about not meeting recommendations and (iv) parents' access to and interest in information on ways to establish healthy habits in their child. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of 477 Australian parents of 0–4-year-old children assessed the degree to which children meet key child health recommendations (diet, physical activity, oral health, sleep, pedestrian/vehicle safety, screen use, sun safety, personal hygiene, medical care), examined clustering of health behaviours and identified parents' greatest concerns. Results: A significant proportion of children do not meet recommendations for many preventive child health behaviours. More than half of the parents report infrequent toothbrushing and dentist check-ups, less than the recommended vegetable consumption, excessive consumption of treats, not wearing safety equipment, excessive screen time and screen time during meals, child inactivity, insufficient sleep, not covering coughs and sneezes, insufficient hand and nail hygiene and inadequate sun protection. No clustering of life-style risk behaviours was found. Areas of greatest concern to parents are vegetable consumption, toothbrushing, covering coughs and sneezes, screen time and wearing sunglasses. Conclusions: While the majority of Australian parents have accessed child health recommendations, relatively few consistently implement health-protective practices with their children. Parents are concerned about this and interested in receiving information. Future research should investigate barriers to following guidelines and how parents can best be supported in establishing healthy habits.

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Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

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56

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6

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© 2021 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians). This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Do Australian children carry out recommended preventive child health behaviours? Insights from an online parent survey, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2020, 56 (6), pp. 900-907, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.14773. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving (http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-828039.html)

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Clinical sciences

Health services and systems

Public health

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Pediatrics

child health guidelines

guideline adherence

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Baker, S; Morawska, A; Mitchell, AE, Do Australian children carry out recommended preventive child health behaviours? Insights from an online parent survey, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2020, 56 (6), pp. 900-907

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