Search

Children's physical activity and screen time behaviours impact their physical health and well-being. In Australia, less than half of children meet daily physical activity recommendations and only one-third meet daily screen time recommendations.

The physical health comorbidities and premature mortality experienced by people with mental illness has led to an increase in exercise services embedded as part of standard care in hospital-based mental health services. Despite the increase in access to exercise services for people experiencing mental illness, there is currently a lack of guidelines on the assessment and triage of patients into exercise therapy.

Many children do not accumulate sufficient physical activity for good health and development at early childhood education and care (ECEC). This study examined the association between ECEC organizational readiness and implementation fidelity of an ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention.

The incidence of mental illness is greatest among young adults, and those enrolled in higher education may be particularly vulnerable compared to the general young adult population. Many higher education institutions employ student support staff tasked with implementing strategies to improve student wellbeing and mental illness.

More than 80,000 Australian children are expected to benefit as 700 childcare centres across the country trial a new program aimed at boosting declining physical activity levels.

A The Kids Research Institute Australia researcher focused on promoting more active childhoods to improve child health and wellbeing will be named amongst WA’s most outstanding young scientists at the upcoming 2020 Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.

The Kids Research Institute Australia and University of Western Australia physical activity researcher Hayley Christian has been named Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year at the 2020 WA Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.

Childcare centres will be invited to help boost children’s physical activity levels by signing on to a new program which commits them to creating more opportunities for physical activity.

Despite evidence suggesting regular exercise (i.e. structured, repetitive and purposeful physical activity) attenuates cardiac patients’ decline in health, our understanding of factors affecting long-term exercise participation among this patient cohort is limited. This problem is pertinent, given that less than half of cardiac patients adhere to exercise following discharge from formal exercise-based rehabilitation programmes. In this study, we explored factors influencing exercise participation after an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programme. 

Childhood is a critical period for the development of movement behaviours such as physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour. The PLAYCE Cohort was established to investigate how movement behaviours change over early to middle childhood, across key behaviour settings and relationships with health and development. An overview of the PLAYCE cohort, summary of key findings to date, and future research opportunities are presented.