Influence of ¡Miranos! On the Levels of Physical Activity during Center Time in Young Children Enrolled in Head Start

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) projected that 41 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese (World Health Organization, 2017). The swift increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has shocked public health agencies, health care clinicians and researchers, as well as the surrounding public in general (Barlow, 2007). There are other obesity prevention interventions for young children, but in ¡Miranos! a multilevel approach which included teacher training, curriculum, policy modifications, and provisions of play equipment was used as well as a clustered RCT design and the socioecological model. The study sample consisted of 117 Head Start children that were 3 years old. The purpose of the study was to test the effect of the intervention on the study sample of Head Start children in low-income families in San Antonio. Overall, the study findings suggest that ¡Miranos! is associated with increases in PA and decreases in SED in preschoolers. The intervention was tailored to low-income Latino preschoolers, but it produced significant results across other races within the centers as well. One year after policy change, ECECs enhanced their active opportunities and staff actions that were related to PA (Kracht, Webster, & Staiano, 2020). Future studies should focus on striving to get the children engaged in as much PA as possible as recommend by WHO and expanding focus to SED by incorporating policy and curriculum changes to increase their PA and decrease SED.