Christiana Care Health System's Moving Women Forward: A Community-based Weight Management Program

Delaware women (n =742) ages 13 to 88 with BMI's ranging from 16.6 to 70.5 self-selected to complete an 8-week community-based weight management program, called “Moving Women Forward”. The program was two hours in length, taught by a registered dietitian, and included one hour of moderately intense culturally appropriate aerobic exercise. Programs were at community sites. Participants were recruited from May 2005 to January 2008 through current community programming and clinical practices at Christiana Care Health System. Data was collected using self-administered pre and post tests at weeks 1 and 8 and analyzed using SPSS 16. The majority of participants were African American (67.8%) with mean age 47.3. Obesity-related conditions were prevalent among the women, including hypertension (26.1%), high cholesterol (21.1%), and type 2 diabetes (9.1%). Comparison between weeks 1 and 8 was by Wilcoxon Signed ranks tests. Statistically significant changes were observed in BMI (mean decline of 2.41) and waist to hip ratio (mean decline of 1.33). Other statistically significant results include an increase in the duration and frequency of exercise, increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, decreases in soda, fast foods, high fat foods, and sodium/salt intake, and a decrease in eating in stressful situations. 50.4% completed the 8 week series (n = 374). Success of the program can be attributed to use of a peer team leader from the community, using culturally appropriate exercise and nutrition education, involving the community sites in program planning, and providing weekly incentives to keep the women coming back.