Outcomes from Walk the Talk: a nursing intervention for Black women

Explore changes in walking behavior, blood pressure, and weight over the course of a pilot intervention designed to increase physical activity.

A pre/post single group design was used to examine outcomes of a 12-month group intervention with 6-month follow-up.

Twenty-one sedentary hypertensive African American women residing in Mid-Missouri with a mean age of 50.3 years.

A 3-hour monthly meeting was paired with an at-home walking component.

Mean steps per day taken by participants were 3857 at baseline, 4060 at the end of the group intervention, and 5282 at the end of the follow-up period. Mean systolic blood pressure was 142 mmHg at baseline, 123 mmHg at intervention end, and 130 mmHg at 18 months. Mean diastolic blood pressure at baseline was 87 mmHg, 80 mmHg at 12 months, and 78 mmHg at the end of the follow-up period. Mean weight decreased from 206 lbs at baseline to 188 lbs at the end of the intervention. However, mean weight had increased to 213 lbs by the end of the 6-month follow-up.

Outcomes from this pilot study are encouraging with respect to the potential of group level interventions as a strategy for promoting cardiovascular health among hypertensive African American women. It is particularly noteworthy that women maintained decreases in systolic blood pressure and further decreased diastolic blood pressure despite regaining weight during the follow-up period. Replication of this study with a larger sample size and control group will significantly enhance our ability to evaluate whether the unusual pattern of change in walking behavior noted in this pilot was a fluke or indicative of a slower pattern of change in this population.