Hair As a Barrier to Physical Activity among African American Women: A Qualitative Exploration

Background

African American (AA) women face unique sociocultural barriers to physical activity (PA) engagement. Such barriers may contribute to their low PA levels and high cardiometabolic disease burden. One particular barrier reported among AA women in recent research is that being physically active can have an undesirable effect on the hairstyles and hair maintenance of many AA women. However, the underlying mechanisms contributing to this barrier have not been fully elucidated. The purpose of this study is to explore hairstyle maintenance as a barrier to PA among AA women and to identify effective strategies to overcome this barrier in the design of a culturally relevant PA intervention.

Methods

A qualitative study design was used. Data were collected from the focus groups comprising 23 sedentary and obese AA women (median age = 38.1 years, median body mass index = 39.8 kg/m²). Content analysis was used to analyze these focus group data.

Results

Three key themes emerged from the qualitative narratives of participants: (1) impact of perspiration on hair and hairstyle maintenance, (2) image and social comparisons, and (3) solutions to overcome hair-related barriers to PA. For impact of perspiration and hairstyle maintenance, participants described how perspiring while engaging in PA negatively impacts many of their hairstyles. Participants further discussed how time and monetary burdens associated with PA-related hairstyle maintenance further contributed to this issue. Findings for the theme of image and social comparison focused on how an AA woman’s hairstyle is an important part of the image and the social comparisons made by non-AAs regarding the hairstyles and maintenance practices of AA women. For solutions to hairstyle maintenance barriers, participant described a variety of potential styling techniques that may help alleviate PA-related maintenance concerns, including braids, locks, and natural hairstyles. However, no styling technique was uniformly endorsed by all study participants.

Conclusion

Findings highlight the significance of hair in the AA community and provide further insight on appropriate intervention design strategies to overcome this sociocultural barrier to PA. Future research is needed to corroborate and further expand on our findings.

Incorporating religion and spirituality into the design of community-based physical activity programs for African American women: a qualitative inquiry

Objective

Limited research has examined how aspects of religion and spirituality can be incorporated into community-based physical activity programs delivered outside of religious institutions. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how spirituality and religion can be leveraged in the design of community-based physical activity programs for African American women delivered outside of faith-based or faith-placed settings.

Results

Three focus groups were conducted were conducted with 23 African American women (M age = 37.8 years, M BMI = 39.6 kg m²). Results showed that incorporating aspects of spirituality (i.e., words encouraging connectedness to a higher power, meditation, mind–body activities) into a physical activity program was universally accepted among participants, regardless of religious affiliation. In contrast, including concepts of religion (i.e., bible verses and/or quotes from religious leaders) was controversial and not recommended among women who did not identify with a religious faith. Findings indicate that when developing community-based physical activity interventions that will not be delivered through faith-based or faith-placed settings, researchers should avoid references to specific religious beliefs. Instead, interventions should focus on spirituality and emphasize the mind–body relationship between physical activity and an African American women’s inner-being and her connectedness with a higher power.

Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02823379. Registered July 1, 2016

Utility of Social Cognitive Theory in Intervention Design for Promoting Physical Activity among African-American Women: A Qualitative Study

OBJECTIVE

We examined the cultural relevance of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) in the design of a physical activity intervention for African-American women.

METHODS

A qualitative study design was used. Twenty-five African-American women (Mean age = 38.5 years, Mean BMI = 39.4 kg·m2) were enrolled in a series of focus groups (N = 9) to elucidate how 5 SCT constructs (ie, Behavioral Capability, Outcome Expectations, Self-efficacy, Self-regulation, Social Support) can be culturally tailored in the design of a physical activity program for African-American women.

RESULTS

For the construct of Behavioral Capability, participants were generally unaware of the amount, intensity, and types of physical activity needed for health benefits. Outcome Expectations associated with physical activity included increased energy, improved health, weight loss, and positive role modeling behaviors. Constructs of Self-efficacy and Self-regulation were elicited through the women perceiving themselves as a primary barrier to physical activity. Participants endorsed the need of a strong social support component and identified a variety of acceptable sources to include in a physical activity program (ie, family, friends, other program participants).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings explicate the utility of SCT as a behavioral change theoretical basis for tailoring physical activity programs to African-American women.

Key role played by RhoA in the balance between planar and apico-basal cell divisions in the chick neuroepithelium

The cell division axis determines the position of daughter cells and is therefore critical for cell fate. During vertebrate neurogenesis, most cell divisions take place within the plane of the neuroepithelium (Das, T., Payer, B., Cayouette, M., and Harris, W.A. (2003). In vivo time-lapse imaging of cell divisions during neurogenesis in the developing zebrafish retina. Neuron 37, 597-609. Haydar, T.F., Ang, E., Jr., and Rakic, P. (2003). Mitotic spindle rotation and mode of cell division in the developing telencephalon. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100, 2890-5. Kosodo, Y., Roper, K., Haubensak, W., Marzesco, A. M., Corbeil, D., and Huttner, W. B. (2004). Asymmetric distribution of the apical plasma membrane during neurogenic divisions of mammalian neuroepithelial cells. EMBO J. 23, 2314-24). The cellular constraints responsible for this preferential orientation are poorly understood. Combining electroporation and time-lapse confocal imaging of chick neural progenitors, the events responsible for positioning the mitotic spindle and their dependence on RhoA were investigated. The results indicate that the spindle forms with a random orientation. However, the final orientation of cell divisions is dependent on two main factors: (i) an early rotation of the spindle that aligns it within the plane of the neuroepithelium, and (ii) a specific limitation of spindle oscillations, despite free rotation around the apico-basal axis. Expressing a dominant-negative RhoA leads to apico-basal cell divisions after a correct initial rotation of the spindle. Our data reveal a specific role for RhoA in the maintenance of spindle orientation, prior to anaphase. Thus, RhoA could be a key player potentially regulated by the neurogenic program or by the neural stem cell environment to control the balance between planar and apico-basal divisions, during normal or pathological development.

FGF receptor signalling is required to maintain neural progenitors during Hensen's node progression

Previous analyses of labelled clones of cells within the developing nervous system of the mouse have indicated that descendants are initially dispersed rostrocaudally followed by more local proliferation, which is consistent with the progressing node's contributing descendants from a resident population of progenitor cells as it advances caudally. Here we electroporated an expression vector encoding green fluorescent protein into the chicken embryo near Hensen's node to test and confirm the pattern inferred in the mouse. This provides a model in which a proliferative stem zone is maintained in the node by a localized signal; those cells that are displaced out of the stem zone go on to contribute to the growing axis. To test whether fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling could be involved in the maintenance of the stem zone, we co-electroporated a dominant-negative FGF receptor with a lineage marker, and found that it markedly alters the elongation of the spinal cord primordium. The results indicate that FGF receptor signalling promotes the continuous development of the posterior nervous system by maintaining presumptive neural progenitors in the region near Hensen's node. This offers a potential explanation for the mixed findings on FGF in the growth and patterning of the embryonic axis.

Clonal organization in the postnatal mouse central nervous system is prefigured in the embryonic neuroepithelium

We have used the LaacZ clonal method of cell labeling of neuronal ancestors and report that the spatial organization of neuronal cells in the post-natal CNS shares striking similarities to that in the embryonic neuroepithelium, from the spinal cord to the diencephalon. The maintenance of the organization occurs despite massive cell divisions and morphogenetic movements. We deduce that the cellular and architectural organization in the mouse CNS results from a succession of patterns of oriented cell dispersion, a general arrest of cell dispersion in the neuroepithelium, and then well-documented radial neuronal migration. The arrest of cell dispersion in the neuroepithelium is consistent with the possibility that an important part of the cellular and architectural organization of the mature CNS requires conservation of spatial relationship between cells and supports the hypothesis of a transition from global and sparse to local and dense cell interactions occurring early within the neuroepithelium.

Different clonal dispersion in the rostral and caudal mouse central nervous system

We have performed a systematic clonal analysis to describe the modes of growth, dispersion and production of cells during the development of the mouse neural system. We have used mice expressing a LaacZ reporter gene under the control of the neuron specific enolase promoter to randomly generate LacZ clones in the central nervous system (CNS). We present evidence for (1) a pool of CNS founder cells that is not regionalized, i.e. give descendants dispersed along the entire A-P axis, (2) an early separation between pools of precursors for the anterior and posterior CNS and (3) distinct modes of production of progenitors in these two domains. More specifically, cell growth and dispersion of the progenitors follow a relatively coherent pattern throughout the anterior CNS, a mode that leads to a progressive regionalization of cell fates. In contrast, cell growth of progenitors of the SC appears to involve self-renewing stem cells that progress caudally during regression of the mode. Therefore, at least part of the area surrounding the node is composed of precursors with self-renewing properties and the development of the trunk is dependent on pools of stem cells regressing from A to P. Taken together with our analysis of the cell growth changes associated with neuromere formation (Mathis, L., Sieur, J., Voiculescu, O., Charnay, P. and Nicolas, J. F. (1999) Development 126, 4095–4106), our results suggest that major transitions in CNS development correspond to changes in cell behavior and may provide a link between morphogenesis and genetic patterning mechanisms (i.e. formation of the body plan).

Successive patterns of clonal cell dispersion in relation to neuromeric subdivision in the mouse neuroepithelium

We made use of the laacz procedure of single-cell labelling to visualize clones labelled before neuromere formation, in 12.5-day mouse embryos. This allowed us to deduce two successive phases of cell dispersion in the formation of the rhombencephalon: an initial anterior-posterior (AP) cell dispersion, followed by an asymmetrical dorsoventral (DV) cell distribution during which AP cell dispersion occurs in territories smaller than one rhombomere. We conclude that the general arrest of AP cell dispersion precedes the onset of morphological segmentation and is not imposed by the interface between adjacent rhombomeres. This demonstrates a major change in the mode of epithelial growth that precedes or accompanies the formation of neuromeres. We also deduced that the period of DV cell dispersion in the neuroepithelium is followed by a coherent growth phase. These results suggest a cell organization on a Cartesian grid, the coordinates of which correspond to the AP and DV axis of the neural tube. A similar sequence of AP cell dispersion followed by an arrest of AP cell dispersion, a preferential DV cell dispersion and then by a coherent neuroepithelial growth, is also observed in the spinal cord and mesencephalon. This demonstrates that a similar cascade of cell events occurs in these different domains of the CNS. In the prosencephalon, differences in spatial constraints may explain the variability in the orientation of cell clusters. Genetic and clonal patterning in the AP and DV dimensions follow the same spatial sequence. An interesting possibility is that these successive patterns of cell growth facilitate the acquisition of positional information.

Retrospective clonal analysis of the cerebellum using genetic laacZ/lacZ mouse mosaics

Analysis of lacZ neuronal clones in the mouse cerebellum demonstrates genealogical independence of the primary and secondary germinal epithelia (PGE and SGE) from early development. PGE precursors and their neuronal descendants are organised into two polyclonal groups of similar sizes that exhibit parasagittal patterning and generally respect the midline. The relationship between these two groups cannot be traced back in time to less than 80 independent cells, which were probably recruited following a period of non-coherent growth that distributes unrelated cells into distinct territories of the neural tube. A lateromedial clonal organisation is observed in the mature cerebellum, suggesting the existence of many small parasagittal domains of clonal restriction and/or of cell dispersion in the rostrocaudal but not in the mediolateral dimension. The organisation is orthogonal with respect to the cellular organisation in the neural tube as is the genetic organisation. Cellular and genetic patterning of the cerebellum therefore share similarities. A possible hypothesis is that distinct cell behaviours create the different clonal domains observed in this study and that the cellular and genetic organisation of the cerebellum are coordinated.

Evidence in the mouse for self-renewing stem cells in the formation of a segmented longitudinal structure, the myotome

A novel method of clonal analysis has been used in the mouse to define the cellular events that lead to the formation of a segmented longitudinal structure, the myotome. Progenitor cells of the myotome were randomly marked during development by intragenic homologous recombination in transgenic mice expressing a reporter laacZ gene. 153 clones corresponding to 7829 cells, that is 20% of the myotomal population of one embryo, were obtained from 3000 E11.5 embryos. Their analysis leads to the hypothesis that, at E11.5, the 41 segments of the myotome have been mainly produced from a unique, spatially organised pool of self-renewing stem cells that accompanies the formation of the anterior-posterior axis.