Perceptions of childcare staff for preventing overweight in Mexican preschool children: A SWOT analysis

Abstract: Objective: To identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) perceived by childcare staff for preventing childhood overweight. Materials and methods: Qualitative study using an interpretative phenomenological approach; 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and 12 focus groups with 89 key informants working in six Mexican public childcare centers (CCC) were conducted. Through content and SWOT analyses, experts further ranked fifty-nine recurrent perceptions regarding healthy feeding and physical activity (PA), using the Delphi method. Results: Strengths: Acknowledgement of the CCC’s responsibility in fostering healthy feeding, availability of organizational regulations, and access to PA infrastructure/indoor activities. Weaknesses: Disregard of preschool overweight as a health problem, nutritional misperceptions, and perceived risk of child injuries while conducting PA. Opportunities: Willingness to reduce children’s access to junk foods, and parental active play with children during weekends. Threats: Limited family nutritional education, and restricted parental time/economic constraints/access to safe public spaces for PA. Conclusion: The identified SWOT must be considered when developing obesity-prevention interventions targeted at CCC.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Ortega-Altamirano,Doris Verónica, Rodríguez-Oliveros,Guadalupe, González-Unzaga,Marco Aurelio, Reyes-Morales,Hortensia
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública 2018
Online Access:	http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-36342018000200019
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!