Changes in Norwegian preschool employee’s physical activity levels 2013–2022

Preschool is an important arena for preschool employees’ fulfilment of daily physical activity (PA) recommendations, and the employees PA level during preschool time has been proven to correspond with the children’s PA level during preschool time. Results in this study is based on reflections on what constitutes health-promoting PA during worktime for preschool employees, and the employees importance for children’s physical activity. Using accelerometer data from 3 different groups (N = 122) of randomly selected preschool employees, this study aimed to examine changes in preschool employees physical activity in MVPA (moderate to vigorous PA) during preschool time in 2013, 2017 and 2022. The participants were all full-time preschool employees working mainly with 4–6-year-old children. The present study is the first study in Norway to objectively assess preschool employees’ PA level during preschool time. A one-way ANOVA was performed to compare the differences between MVPA at the 3 different points in time. Results show a significant decrease in preschool employee’s physical activity in MVPA during preschool time, from 25 min of MVPA in 2013 to 13.2 minutes of MVPA in 2022. However, follow up analyses showed that this significant decrease mainly took place between 2013 and 2017. The finding indicating a lower PA level among preschool employees is worrying as it clashes with the importance of preschool employees’ fulfilment of daily PA recommendations. Additionally, because it has been demonstrated that the PA level of the employees correlates with the PA level of the children during preschool time, their lower PA could have adverse effects on the children’s PA level.