Physical Activity Levels of Early Childhood Educators: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Only 21 studies met the criteria and only 11 could go into each pooled analysis, which the authors say limited how precise the pooled numbers can be and stopped them exploring subgroups properly. The studies disagreed with each other to an extreme degree, with more than 97% of the variation sitting between studies rather than within them in both pooled analyses, so the pooled figures describe a broad pattern rather than a number you can quote for your setting or country. Activity was measured in different ways across studies, including different devices, cut-points, how long the monitor was worn and which days, and the settings differed too, so the variation reflects how the studies were done as much as real differences between workforces. When studies reported daily activity the reviewers multiplied by seven to make a weekly figure, which assumes every day is the same and can over- or under-estimate activity. The authors state this. Eight of the 21 studies were rated weak, mostly because of who was recruited, reliance on self-report questionnaires or no adjustment for other differences between people, and they were kept in the main analyses. Almost all participants were women (median 97%) and the studies were concentrated in the United States and Norway. Male educators, home-based childcarers and educators from ethnic and racial minorities were rarely represented. The data are mostly cross-sectional, so the link between educators' and children's activity cannot show which causes which, and the six studies measuring it used statistics too different to combine.

This work was supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Do not read the pooled average of 223.6 minutes a week as a reliable picture of how active early childhood educators are. The studies disagreed almost completely, one small study of 25 educators reported 881.9 minutes a week, and dropping that study and the weaker ones brought the average down to roughly 154 to 170 minutes a week. The figure of about half meeting the guideline is likewise an average across studies that ranged from 21% to 92%.