Browsing by Author "Uys, Monika"

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    Perceived and objective neighborhood support for outside of school physical activity in South African children
    (BioMed Central, 2016-06-01) Uys, Monika; Broyles, Stephanie T; Draper, Catherine E; Hendricks, Sharief; Rae, Dale; Naidoo, Nirmala; Katzmarzyk, Peter T; Lambert, Estelle V
    Background: The neighborhood environment has the potential to influence children’s participation in physical activity. However, children’s outdoor play is controlled by parents to a great extent. This study aimed to investigate whether parents' perceptions of the neighborhood environment and the objectively measured neighborhood environment were associated with children's moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) outside of school hours; and to determine if these perceptions and objective measures of the neighborhood environment differ between high and low socio-economic status (SES) groups. Methods: In total, 258 parents of 9–11 year-old children, recruited from the South African sample of the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE), completed a questionnaire concerning the family and neighborhood environment. Objective measures of the environment were also obtained using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Children wore an Actigraph (GT3X+) accelerometer for 7 days to measure levels of MVPA. Multilevel regression models were used to determine the association between the neighborhood environment and MVPA out of school hours. Results: Parents’ perceptions of the neighborhood physical activity facilities were positively associated with children’s MVPA before school (β = 1.50 ± 0.51, p = 0.003). Objective measures of neighborhood safety and traffic risk were associated with children’s after-school MVPA (β = −2.72 ± 1.35, p = 0.044 and β = −2.63 ± 1.26, p = 0.038, respectively). These associations were significant in the low SES group (β = −3.38 ± 1.65, p = 0.040 and β = −3.76 ± 1.61, p = 0.020, respectively), but unrelated to MVPA in the high SES group. Conclusions: This study found that several of the objective measures of the neighborhood environment were significantly associated with children’s outside-of-school MVPA, while most of the parents’ perceptions of the neighborhood environment were unrelated.
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    Socio-ecological influences on physical activity in primary school children: a view from South Africa
    (2015) Uys, Monika; Lambert, Estelle V; Draper, Catherine E
    The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased substantially globally with a concurrent decline in both children's physical activity and fitness levels. The socio-ecological model proposes that health behaviour, such as physical activity, is influenced by multiple factors, at an individual, social and environmental level. However, there seems to be a lack of consensus in the current literature on the factors influencing physical activity in different settings (e.g. school, neighbourhood), and across a wide range of socio-economic conditions. To our knowledge, there are no data available on the role of different environmental factors (within the school and the neighbourhood environment) in relation to children's physical activity in a South African setting. Therefore, one of the key aims of this thesis was to assess the effectiveness of a novel intervention on fitness, measures of physical activity and factors that influence physical activity. Specifically, this thesis assessed the effectiveness of a school-based, curriculum-grounded, educator-focused intervention designed to increase physical activity and healthy eating in South African primary school students in low income settings, on fitness levels and physical activity related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour (Chapter 2). Additionally, this thesis examined factors within the school environment associated with observed physical activity in children during in-school break time, self-report activity, and moderate- to -vigorous, in-school objectively-measured activity (Chapter 3-5). Furthermore, this thesis assessed the influences of parental perceptions and the neighbourhood environment on children's physical activity (Chapter 6). The overarching aim of this thesis is to examine the association between environmental constructs (physical spatial and built environment, social environment, and policy environment) and children's physical activity.