Physical activity and cardiovascular disease among African-born people living in the US: a scoping review

To conduct a scoping review identifying the common forms of physical activity among African-born people in the United States (US) and the reported associations of such activities with cardiovascular risk in this population.

Scoping review of published literature, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.

A systematic literature search was conducted using Medline (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), CINAHL Plus (Ebsco) and PsycInfo (Ebsco) of articles published between 1990 and 2024.

Published peer-reviewed articles were included if they focused on African-born people within the US context, included measures of physical activity via self-report or device-based measures, and mentioned cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related outcomes. Articles with no examination of physical activity, cardiovascular risk, or that were conducted outside of the US were excluded.

A total of 258 articles were identified via databases and registers. However, 125 were excluded following de-duplication. The remaining 133 article abstracts were screened, and 17 articles were read for full-text review.

While the percentage of African-born adults meeting the physical activity guidelines varied widely, a general pattern of inactivity was observed. Qualitative findings revealed that among African-born people who were physically active, the most salient forms of physical activities were walking, cultural or traditional dancing, and sports, particularly soccer. Of three studies examining cardiovascular risk factors, two reported significant associations between physical activity and CVD risk.

African-born individuals often engaged in activities that were culturally familiar to them, such as dance and soccer. While there was variation in physical activity engagement across countries of origin, empirical work among African-born populations in the US is sparse, heterogeneous and methodologically limited. Therefore, more studies are needed examining specific forms of physical activity and cardiovascular risk reduction among African-born people.