Results From a Four-State Pilot Study of the Childcare Survey of Activity and Wellness (C-SAW), 2021.

Abstract

Approximately 12.5 million young children are cared for in early care and education (ECE) settings at least once per week, making ECE an important setting to support nutrition, physical activity (PA), breastfeeding, and other health and wellness topics. National standards have been developed for the ECE setting, but the extent to which nutrition and PA standards are being translated to everyday policies and practices is unknown, as information has not been collected in a consistent way across states and communities. This brief report provides descriptive data from 221 ECE centers in four states in 2021 using a standardized survey called the Childcare Survey of Activity and Wellness (C-SAW). Information on the development, piloting, resulting descriptive data, and future implications for C-SAW in public health practice are presented in this brief. The C-SAW survey and all ancillary materials are freely available for use by public health professionals in states and communities to better understand ECE programs in their jurisdictions or to evaluate efforts to improve nutrition, PA, breastfeeding, and other health topics over time.