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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Amy E. Harley, PhD, MPH, RD, School of Public Health, Harvard University-Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Smith 336, Boston, MA 02115, 617-582-8292, amy_harley@dfci.harvard.edu and Angela Odoms-Young, PhD, School of Allied Health, Northern Illinois University, Public Health and Health Education, Dekalb, IL 60115.

Compared to Caucasian women, African American women are less likely to engage in physical activity. Identifying factors that encourage physical activity participation among African American women is particularly important because they are disproportionately at risk for health conditions associated with inactivity, including obesity and cardiovascular disease. While several studies have focused on understanding barriers to physical activity, few have examined the strategies African American women use to adopt and maintain a physically active lifestyle. This study used a grounded theory approach to understand the strategies physically active African American women use to overcome cultural barriers to physical activity participation. In-depth individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with 15 physically active African American women. Participants described contextual factors that served as barriers for participation in physical activity including hair type, history of low physical activity participation, and cultural norms and perspectives towards healthy lifestyle habits. Further, participants discussed their methods and strategies for negotiating these cultural contexts in order to initiate and maintain a physically active lifestyle including reaching beyond their local community for role models and potential activities; educating, supporting, and mentoring community women in physical activity; and working within their families and social networks to change expectations for family roles, eating, body weight, and appropriate family activities. Understanding strategies that assist African American women in long-term maintenance of a physically active lifestyle will help inform effective interventions and other health promotion efforts to reduce the burden of sedentary lifestyle and chronic disease in this community of women.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe three ways that African American race/culture impacts physical activity participation.
• Discuss strategies employed by African American women to maintain physical activity.
• Identify the practical implications of understanding the relationship between race/culture and physical activity participation.

Keywords: African American, Physical Activity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation