These
women would also like to see more “women-only” facilities
and activity programs that bring co-workers and family members together,
say Amy A. Eyler, Ph.D., of St. Louis University and colleagues, who
oversaw the three-year research project.
Beyond this common ground, however, there is a mix of factors that influence
whether Latina, Native American, black and white women in rural and urban
areas are physically active, the researchers say.
Their study confirmed that some factors, like age and general health,
influence activity in expected ways: Healthier and younger women in the
study were more likely to get the recommended amount of exercise. Women
who were confident about their ability to exercise were also more likely
to be physically active.
But other factors had an unexpected relationship with exercise among the
women. In several populations, for example, women with many children were
more likely than those with fewer children to be active, according to Eyler
and colleagues.
The study also found that social factors like knowing people who exercise
and attending religious services were associated with levels of physical
activity for many of the women. Surprisingly, aspects of the physical environment
like the prevalence of sidewalks or traffic did not play a consistent role
in whether women exercised, the researchers found.
The researchers interviewed groups of black and Latina women living in
Chicago and Baltimore, black women in rural South Carolina and Alabama,
Latina women in urban North Carolina and Virginia, Native American women
in rural and urban communities in the Southwest and white women living
in rural areas of the Midwest. The survey included information from 4,122
women and was carried out by researchers from seven universities.
Eyler and colleagues say they hope the detailed survey will help health
care workers design exercise intervention programs that specifically target
minority women
“Increasing physical activity levels in the U.S. population is a
major factor in improving the health of our nation. Unfortunately, interventions
to increase physical activity levels have been only minimally successful,” Eyler
and colleagues say.
The participating universities included the University of Illinois-Chicago,
University of Maryland, University of South Carolina, University of Alabama-Birmingham,
University of North Carolina, University of New Mexico and Saint Louis
University. The research was supported by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
