148671 Relationship between Civic Engagement and Physical Activity in Older African American Women in the Baltimore Experience CorpsŪ program and the Women's Health and Aging Studies

Monday, November 5, 2007: 8:45 AM

Erwin J. Tan, MD , Department of Medicine/ Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Constantine Frangakis, PhD , Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Michelle Ricks, MS , Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Balitmore, MD
Qilu Yu, PhD , Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Balitmore, MD
Michelle C. Carlson , Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Balitmore, MD
Elizabeth Tanner, RN PhD , Johns Hopkins School of Nursing/ Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Balitmore, MD
George W. Rebok, MA PhD , Department of Mental Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Sylvia McGill , Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Baltimore, MD
Linda P. Fried, MD MPH , Department of Epidemiology and Medicine, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
  
Experience CorpsŪ (EC) was designed to be a community-based approach to increasing physical and other healthful activity among older adults not historically likely to access health promotion programs. This program places older volunteers in public elementary schools for fifteen hours a week, in roles designed to improve the academic outcomes of children while increasing volunteer physical activity. We report here on physical activity over three years in 84 African American women volunteers in the Baltimore Experience Corps as compared to 207 African American women in the Baltimore Woman's Health and Aging Studies I and II (WHAS); all were ages 65 to 96 with comparable SES, frailty and self reported health status. A propensity score was developed for enrolling in EC as a function of the following baseline characteristics: Age, education, income, marital status, health status, osteoarthritis, stroke, Mini-Mental State Exam score, and frailty. Using a regression model, we evaluated physical activity as a function of WHAS /EC membership, adjusting for the propensity score and time of follow-up. Baseline physical activity for individuals with a median propensity score was 360 kcals/week for both groups. At 12 months, EC volunteers reported 670 kcals/week, compared to 390 kcals/week in WHAS. At 36 months, EC volunteers reported 860 kcals/week, compared to 400 kcals/week in WHAS (p = 0.002) These results suggest that a high intensity volunteer program that is designed as a health promotion intervention can lead to significant and sustained improvements in the level of physical activity of older African American women.

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate if high intensity civic engagement(15 hours of volunteering or more per week through a whole school year) can meaningfully increase physical activity in urban older adults.

Keywords: Aging, Physical Activity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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