Dimensions of Physical Activity in African American Women

A community-based walking program to promote physical activity among African American women

The death rate from cardiovascular disease (CVD) is substantially higher among African American women than for white women. Physical activity has been linked to decreased risk factors and deaths related to CVD. Despite the health benefits of physical activity, reports show most African American women have low levels of physical activity. Home- or community-based walking interventions are effective strategies to promote increased levels of physical activity among African American women. This article describes the implementation of one such program.

Calculated metabolic equivalents: a tool for exercise prescription among African American women

BACKGROUND

Average daily steps (ADS) are a low-technology measurement of activity that is useful for exercise prescription. However, research demonstrates poor validity for ADS as a measure of exercise capability. We present a superior low-technology measure of exercise capability, which is easily applied by practitioners in clinical or nonclinical settings.

METHODS

Based on analysis of baseline data from an intervention study to test a sustainable approach to long-term physical activity improvement for employed African American women, between 2005 and 2008, we examined exercise tolerance metabolic equivalents (METs) and ADS of 158 participants and generated an alternative measure of exercise capacity. We conducted regression analysis to determine the impact of key health indicators on exercise capacity and examined associations between our predictive model and true (MET) exercise performance.

RESULTS

Using our predictive equation, 79.33% of participants were correctly categorized (very high, high, medium) based on our tool, with 10 women (6.67%) mischaracterized by one level higher than actual MET achievement and 21(14.00%) mischaracterized as one category lower than actual MET achievement. In contrast, using ADS alone resulted in 22.15% correctly categorized participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed tool is superior to existing low-technology measures of exercise capacity while retaining strong utility in nonclinical and low-resource settings.