Caminando con Fe (Walking with Faith): A church-based Multi-Level Intervention Promoting Physical Activity in Latinas

Introduction: The low prevalence of physical activity (PA) in Latinas likely contributes to the high rates of chronic diseases in this community. The current study evaluated the impact of a church-based multilevel and multidisciplinary intervention promoting PA on the built environment, Latinas' PA, and psychosocial correlates of PA.

Methods: Ninety-seven Latina adults in Southern California participated in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 42 (SD = 10) and close to 67% reported completing High School. Approximately 70% of participants were married and 51% earned less than $2,000 per month. PA was collected through accelerometers and self-report; psychosocial correlates of PA were collected only through self-report. Neighborhood correlates of PA were assessed through environmental audit measures.

Results: Six months following implementation of intervention activities, participants' moderate and vigorous PA, perceived benefits to PA, enjoyment of moderate PA, social support to PA and neighborhood cohesion increased whereas self-efficacy and barriers to PA decreased (p<.001). Moreover, findings from the environmental audit show improvements in the built environment following intervention activities.

Conclusions: Faith-based interventions using a community-based participatory approach appear to influence Latinas' moderate and vigorous levels of PA, and psychosocial correlates of PA. Although most psychosocial correlates changed in the expected direction, Latinas' self-efficacy to PA decreased following participation in intervention activities. Future interventions may want to address Latinas' expectations of participating in PA interventions and target physical environmental correlates of PA to help maintain individuals' PA.