Attained body mass index among children attending rural outdoor or urban conventional kindergartens

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether children who attended rural, outdoor kindergartens had a lower BMIz score and risk of overweight (including obesity) after starting school compared to children in urban, conventional kindergartens. The study is based on the first available measurement of outcomes recorded by public health nurses at school when the children were between 6 and 8 years of age. As secondary objectives, the researchers investigated whether socioeconomic status affected the result, as well as the developmental trajectories of BMIz scores and the risk of overweight at 6, 7 and 8 years of age for children in outdoor kindergartens and in conventional kindergartens.

In the basic models, the children in outdoor kindergartens showed a statistically significantly lower risk of overweight compared to children in urban kindergartens. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors, such as parental BMI and education, the researchers found no significant differences in BMIz or risk of overweight between the two groups. The study concludes that the type of kindergarten alone does not have a significant impact on BMI z-scores or the risk of overweight, but other factors, such as parental education, may play a role​.

The study is a longitudinal observational study. The sample consists of 3184 children from two municipalities in Denmark, of which 1544 attended outdoor kindergartens and 1640 attended urban kindergartens. The average age at the start of kindergarten was 3.5 years, and height and weight were measured by the school health service when the children were between 6 and 8 years old. BMIz was calculated and information about birth weight and socio-demographic factors, such as parental BMI, education, and smoking habits, was used as control variables.

Larsen, S. C., Rohde, J. F., Olsen, N. J., Østergaard, J. N., Heitmann, B. L., & Specht, I. O. (2023). Attained body mass index among children attending rural outdoor or urban conventional kindergartens. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1166512.