Fit for School Study protocol: early child growth, health behaviours, nutrition, cardiometabolic risk and developmental determinants of a child’s school readiness, a prospective cohort
Peter Szatmari,
Mark S Tremblay,
Peter Jüni,
Christopher Allen,
Julia Thompson,
Kevin Thorpe,
Douglas Campbell,
Andreas Laupacis,
Elise Mok,
Catherine S Birken,
Jessica A Omand,
Kim M Nurse,
Cornelia M Borkhoff,
Jonathon L Maguire,
Muhammad Mamdani,
Patricia C Parkin,
Janis Randall Simpson,
Eric Duku,
Caroline Reid-Westoby,
Magdalena Janus,
Catherine S. Birken,
Jonathon L. Maguire,
Ronald Cohn,
Cornelia M. Borkhoff,
Charles Keown-Stoneman,
Christine Kowal,
Dalah Mason,
Jillian Baker,
Denis Leduc,
Patricia Li,
Navindra Persaud,
Susan Shepherd,
Carolyn Taylor,
Farnaz Bazeghi,
Imaan Bayoumi,
Sarah Carsley,
Patricia Raso,
Amanda Offord
Affiliations
Peter Szatmari
1 Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mark S Tremblay
2 Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Peter Jüni
professor
Christopher Allen
6 The Applied Health Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael`s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Julia Thompson
5 Children and Young People’s Public Health Team, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield, UK
Kevin Thorpe
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Douglas Campbell
St. Michael`s Hospital/Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andreas Laupacis
professor
Elise Mok
Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada
Catherine S Birken
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jessica A Omand
Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Kim M Nurse
Division of Paediatric Medicine and the Paediatric Outcomes Research Team (PORT), Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cornelia M Borkhoff
The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jonathon L Maguire
Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Muhammad Mamdani
The Li Ka Shing Centre for Healthcare Analytics Research & Training, Unity Health Toronto - St Michaels Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Patricia C Parkin
Department of Paediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Janis Randall Simpson
Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Eric Duku
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Caroline Reid-Westoby
The Offord Centre for Child Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Magdalena Janus
Offord Centre for Child Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Catherine S. Birken
4 Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jonathon L. Maguire
1 Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael`s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ronald Cohn
Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cornelia M. Borkhoff
Division of Paediatric Medicine and the Paediatric Outcomes Research Team (PORT), Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Charles Keown-Stoneman
3 Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Christine Kowal
8 SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dalah Mason
8 SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jillian Baker
Pediatrics, St. Michael`s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Introduction School readiness is a multidimensional construct that includes cognitive, behavioural and emotional aspects of a child’s development. School readiness is strongly associated with a child’s future school success and well-being. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a reliable and valid teacher-completed tool for assessing school readiness in children at kindergarten age. A substantial knowledge gap exists in understanding how early child growth, health behaviours, nutrition, cardiometabolic risk and development impact school readiness. The primary objective was to determine if growth patterns, measured by body mass index trajectories in healthy children aged 0–5 years, are associated with school readiness at ages 4–6 years (kindergarten age). Secondary objectives were to determine if other health trajectories, including health behaviours, nutrition, cardiometabolic risk and development, are associated with school readiness at ages 4–6 years. This paper presents the Fit for School Study protocol.Methods and analysis This is an ongoing prospective cohort study. Parents of children enrolled in the The Applied Health Research Group for Kids (TARGet Kids!) practice-based research network are invited to participate in the Fit for School Study. Child growth, health behaviours, nutrition, cardiometabolic risk and development data are collected annually at health supervision visits and linked to EDI data collected by schools. The primary and secondary analyses will use a two-stage process: (1) latent class growth models will be used to first determine trajectory groups, and (2) generalised linear mixed models will be used to examine the relationship between exposures and EDI results.Ethics and dissemination The research ethics boards at The Hospital for Sick Children, Unity Health Toronto and McMaster University approved this study, and research ethics approval was obtained from each school board with a student participating in the study. The findings will be presented locally, nationally and internationally and will be published in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number NCT01869530.
