The PCPFS is pleased to announce Barbara Ainsworth, Ph.D., San Diego State University, Maureen Weiss, Ph.D., University of Virginia, and Weimo Zhu, Ph.D., University of Illinois as the newest members of the PCPFS Science Board. Read more about these and the other members of the Science Board.

Former Science Board member and chairman, Chuck Corbin, Ph.D., FACSM, will be speaking at the ACSM Health and Fitness Summit. Dr. Corbin will speak at a special pre-conference session on “Innovations in PE: Collaborative Opportunities for Health/Fitness Professionals.” His conference presentation, “What Every Professional Needs to Know about Physical Activity for Youth,” will look at creative programming and collaborations professionals can undertake to get our nation’s youth moving. The ACSM Health and Fitness Summit will take place April 11-14 at the Buena Vista Resort in Orlando, FL.

Physical Activity
Challenges Facing African-American Girls and Women

Dr. Doris R. Corbett, Sport Sociologist
Dr. Denyce Calloway, Health Educator
Howard University
Washington, DC

African American girls and women are at high risk for developing health conditions related to a sedentary lifestyle, especially overweight and obesity. Because of their increased susceptibility, African American girls and women should be targeted as a key audience to receive health messages that stress the benefits of active living and encourage regular, preferably daily, participation in  physical activity. 

Based on the National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ( NHANES, 1999-2000),  77.7% of African American women between the ages of 20-74 surveyed  were overweight compared to 57.2 % of white women in the same age group. About half (50.4%) of the African American women aged 20-74 were obese compared to 30.4% of white women.

Physical activity is bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in an expenditure of energy.  According to Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (1996), engaging in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on 5 or more days a week has significant health benefits for adults. Youth aged 6 to 17 need 60 minutes of daily activity for significant health benefits. 

The connection between regular physical activity and positive health benefits is well established. Physical activity helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints, helps control weight, builds lean muscle, reduces fat, prevents or delays the development of high blood pressure and helps reduce blood pressure in some adolescents with hypertension.  Conversely, physical inactivity contributes to 300,000 preventable deaths a year in the United States. Some 40% of deaths in the United States are caused by behavior patterns that could be modified. A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor across the spectrum of preventable diseases that lower the quality of life and result in premature illness and death (USDHSS, 1996). 

Current Status of Physical Activity in African American Girls and Women
The limited numbers of studies that address the level of activity in different ethnic groups and by gender suggest that African American youth between the ages of 9 and 13 were less likely than white youth to participate in organized physical activity;  more African American males than females  aged 9-13 reported participating in free-time physical activity (Duke, 2003).  While there has been a slight decline in leisure time inactivity among African American women between 1994 and 2004, African American women are still more sedentary than white women  (Kruger, J. et. al., 2005; Behavior Risk Surveillance System, United States, 1994-2004). 

Barriers to Physical Activity for African-American Girls and Women
A physically inactive or sedentary lifestyle is one in which a person does  not engage in any regular pattern of physical activity beyond daily functioning (USDHSS, 1996). In the sociology of physical activity, research studies have contributed useful information about social perceptions of physicality, exercise, fitness, body ideals, and health practices specific to the African-American girl and woman.  Despite considerable evidence confirming the preventive value of physical activity, African-American girls and women report uneasiness about the dominate culture’s intentions regarding their health concerns and practices. 

Barriers to regular physical activity for both African-American girls and women  include:

• Lack of motivation, poor perception of health, lack of self-efficacy, lack of support from employers.
• Lack of time due to family responsibilities, including child care, cooking, cleaning and other household-related responsibilities.
• Lack of social support by parents, family and friends. According to The Wilson Report: Moms, Dads, Daughters and Sports  (1988), African-American girls were more likely than to have parents who believed sports were more important for boys than for girls, were more likely to feel that boys make fun of girls who play sports, and had fewer financial resources for lessons, equipment and transportation to games than their white counterparts.
• Cultural barriers to participation among African-American women may include lack of knowledge of the importance of exercise, differing value ascribed to physical activity, health problems, acceptance of larger body size and differing social norms.
• Being overweight and obese may be barriers to physical activity, and African American girls and women may not recognize their weight problem as a health condition until complications develop.  Self-consciousness about body type and tight-fitting clothing (including shoes) are impediments to engaging in various types of physical activity, such as walking.
• Socio-economic status is associated with physical activity for African-American girls and women. Economic factors seriously impede participation and may include: tiredness due to physically demanding jobs, limited access to affordable or adequate facilities, and lack of both community resources for equipment and gender-sensitive programs.
• Environmental factors influencing African-American physical activity levels include a lack of resources such as an appropriate neighborhood environment that is a safe place for girls to play. Family environment (family intimacy) was found to be significantly associated with physical activity in a sample of urban African-American adolescent girls (Kuo, J., Mekos, D., Haythornthwaite, J., and Rohm Young, D., 2003).
• African-American girls more often attend schools where the teaching of life-time physical activities in physical education classes is not a high priority.
• Schools which African-American girls often attend place greater emphasis on competitive sport than on the acquisition of physical skills for the health and fun of active participation.
• The desire to reject the dominate culture’s “white identity” leads many African-Americans to resist the practice of a healthy lifestyle that would include exercising and eating healthy foods.  Nutritional foods are often associated with being “white.”

Overcoming Obstacles to Physical Activity

Barriers to an active life-style for African-American girls and women are multi-dimensional.  What is needed is national attention and efforts to reduce the prevalence of inactivity particularly in light of the National Healthy People 2010 objectives for reducing the substantial health disparities among ethnic groups in the United States.  Reducing educational and economic disparities  could reduce both obesity and physical activity disparities. 

Ultimately, programs and policies can only accomplish so much in motivating people to become active.  It is clear that for individuals, taking the first step is difficult. Attempts to help African American women and girls gain fuller understanding of the health benefits of physical activity along with public and private sector efforts to remove barriers to physical activity for African American girls and women  are necessary. 

It is important for all girls to be encouraged to maintain the habit of physical activity throughout the school years and in adulthood.  Since the problem of over-weight and obesity among African-American girls and women is especially grave, prevention should become a public health priority for this population. Individuals and groups within the public and private sectors should join together to prepare an effective public health communications strategy to stress prevention and early treatment of overweight and obesity among African American women and girls. 

The message that needs to be targeted at and disseminated to African American girls and women is that if they are more physically active, they will be (1) less likely to develop health problems related to overweight and obesity (diabetes, heart disease); (2) have a decreased risk of heart attacks and stroke, and  (3)  are more likely to experience clear thinking and emotional well-being.

References

Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, (1999-2000).

Duke, J., Huhman, M., & Heitzler, C. (2003). Physical Activity levels among children aged 9 to 13 years: United States, 2002. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. 52(33);785-788. 

Kruger, J., Ham, S.A.., and Kohl, H.W. III (2005).  Trends in leisure-time physical inactivity by age, sex, and race/ethnicity: United States, 1994- 2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. 54(39);991-994. 

Kuo, J., Mekos, D., Haythornthwaite, J., and Rohm Young, D. (2003).  Associations among family and neighborhood environment with physical activity in urban adolescent girls.  Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5), S65.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1996). Physical Activity and Health: A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta,GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Wilson Sporting Goods and the Women’s Sports Foundation (1988). The Wilson Report: Moms, Dads, Daughters and Sports.  River Grove, IL: Wilson Sporting Goods.