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Outcomes of a home-based walking program for African-American women
JoEllen Wilbur1, Judith H McDevitt, Edward Wang
1College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. jwilbur@uic.edu
Purpose:
As compared with minimal treatment (MT), to determine the effectiveness of a home-based walking intervention enhanced by behavioral strategies targeted and tailored to African-American women (enhanced treatment [ET]) on adherence, physical activity, fitness, and body composition at 24 and 48 weeks.
Design:
Using a quasi-experimental design, treatments were randomly assigned to one of two community health centers.
Setting:
The centers were in predominately African-American communities.
Participants:
Sedentary women (156 ET, 125 MT) 40 to 65 years were recruited within a 3-mile radius of each center.
Intervention:
Both treatments had the same orientation. The ET group had four targeted workshops followed by weekly tailored telephone calls over 24 weeks.
Methods:
Generalized linear mixed models were used to test effects of treatments on adherence, physical activity, aerobic fitness, and body composition.
Results:
Adherence was significantly higher in the ET than the MT group and was related to the number of workshops attended (r = .58) and tailored calls (r = .25) received. On-treatment analysis showed significant postintervention improvement in waist circumference and fitness in the ET group; however, these improvements were not statistically different between the two groups. Intent to treat analysis showed a significant increase in fitness, decrease in waist circumference, and no change in body mass index in both treatments.
Conclusion:
Findings suggest the potential impact of workshop group support on adherence in African-American women.
