JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Many children today are growing up in environments that predispose them to develop non-communicable diseases (NCDs). While no single preventive solution exists, evidence supports interventions in child-care settings for establishing good nutrition and physical activity behaviours as a ‘critical window’ that could reduce the risk of developing NCDs later in life. An emerging approach is the use of eHealth tools which have shown potential in promoting best practices for nutrition and physical activity environments within ECEC settings.

Objective:

The primary objective of this review is to map the breadth of available evidence on eHealth tools currently available to assess and support nutrition and/or physical activity best practices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings, and to highlight potential research directions.

Methods:

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual for Scoping Reviews with adherence to the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist guidelines. Eligibility is based on the PCC (Population, Concept, and Context) criteria as follows: (1) early childhood educators (population); (2) eHealth (digital) technology, such as website, smartphone apps, email, social media; and (3) nutrition and/or physical activity measurement and intervention tools to support best practices in ECEC settings (context). The information sources for this review are bibliographic databases PubMed, SCOPUS, CINAHL Plus, ERIC, and EMBASE in English and French language with no date restrictions. Following this, a scan of grey literature will be undertaken. The electronic search strategy was developed in collaboration with a librarian. Two independent reviewers will screen the title and abstracts of all relevant publications against inclusion criteria, followed by a full-text review using a data extraction tool developed by the reviewers. Disagreements will be resolved by a third reviewer. A synthesis of included articles will describe the publication, assessment, and/or intervention tool details. A summary of the findings will describe the types of eHealth assessment tools available, psychometric properties, eHealth intervention components, and theoretical frameworks used for development. Results will be presented in multiple forms, including tables and graphical charts.

Results:

Preliminary searches of bibliographic databases to test and calibrate the search were carried out in May 2023. Study selection based on titles and abstracts was started in August 2023. The developed search strategy will inform the grey literature search. The findings will be presented visualized data map format, waffle chart, or tabular format accompanied by a narrative discussion. The scoping review is planned for completion in 2024.

Conclusions:

A structured review of the literature will provide a summary of the range and type of eHealth tools available for ECEC programs to assess and improve nutrition and/or physical activity environments in order to identify gaps in the current evidence base and provide insights to guide future intervention research. Clinical Trial: Open Science Framework XTRNZ