Arab American College Students' Physical Activity and Body Composition: Reconciling Middle East-West Differences Using the Socioecological Model

Kahan, David

doi:10.5641/027013611x13098902482058

Cited by 7 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…For example, a recent qualitative study from the United Arab Emirates reported that women do not have space at home for indoor exercise and families do not allow them to go for a walk alone ( 18 ) . Similar barriers have been reported from other Arab communities in the Middle East ( 27 , 28 ) and the USA ( 29 , 30 ) . The social norms that limit women's involvement in physical activity may be an important contributor to the prevalence rates of overweight/obesity and the metabolic syndrome, which are much higher for women than for men in the GCC region ( 8 , 9 ) .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Addressing physical inactivity in Omani adults: perceptions of public health managers

Mabry

Al-Busaidi

Reeves

et al. 2013

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: To explore barriers and solutions to addressing physical inactivity and prolonged sitting in the adult population of Oman. Design: Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews that took place from October 2011 to January 2012. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Data collection and analysis was an iterative process; later interviews explored emerging themes. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and continued until data saturation; this occurred by the tenth interviewee. Thematic content analysis was carried out, guided by an ecological model of health behaviour. Setting: Muscat, Oman. Subjects: Ten mid-level public health managers. Results: Barriers for physical inactivity were grouped around four themes: (i) intrapersonal (lack of motivation, awareness and time); (ii) social (norms restricting women's participation in outdoor activity, low value of physical activity); (iii) environment (lack of places to be active, weather); and (iv) policy (ineffective health communication, limited resources). Solutions focused on culturally sensitive interventions at the environment (building sidewalks and exercise facilities) and policy levels (strengthening existing interventions and coordinating actions with relevant sectors). Participants' responses regarding sitting time were similar to, but much more limited than those related to physical inactivity, except for community participation and voluntarism, which were given greater emphasis as possible solutions to reduce sitting time. Conclusions: Given the increasing prevalence of chronic disease in Oman and the Arabian Gulf, urgent action is required to implement gender-relevant public health policies and programmes to address physical inactivity, a key modifiable risk factor. Additionally, research on the determinants of physical inactivity and prolonged sitting time is required to guide policy makers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Addressing physical inactivity in Omani adults: perceptions of public health managers

Mabry

Al-Busaidi

Reeves

et al. 2013

Public Health Nutr.

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“…Five studies were conducted in Australia [29,30,36,41,43], three in the US [33,38,42], three in the Netherlands [34,37,44], three in Sweden [32,35,40], and one in Canada [39]. The target population of the 15 studies included Arab migrant groups from the Middle East and North Africa, with a total of five studies exclusively focusing on Arab migrant samples [29,33,35,38,42]. A total of six studies focused on physical activity as the primary behaviour of interest [29,30,32,38,40,43], while the remaining studies focused on physical activity in addition to other lifestyle behaviours (e.g., physical activity and diet).…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sample sizes of Arabs in the included studies ranged from 11 [32] to 45 [43]. A total of seven studies included both men and women [29,33,35,37,39,41,44], seven studies focused exclusively on women [30,32,34,36,40,42,43], and one study focused on men [38].…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of qualitative studies exploring the factors influencing the physical activity levels of Arab migrants

Masri

Kolt

George

2021

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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Background Evidence suggests that Arab migrant populations engage in low levels of physical activity. To our knowledge, there are no reviews that explore the perspectives of Arab migrant populations on the factors influencing physical activity. The aim of this systematic review was to thematically synthesise qualitative literature on the factors influencing physical activity among Arab migrant populations. Methods Five electronic databases (CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, PsychoInfo, MEDLINE, Embase) were searched in July 2018 and searched again in April 2020. A manual search in Google Scholar was also performed using keywords and the reference lists of included studies were also screened to identify further articles. The eligibility criteria for inclusion were studies that sampled adult (≥18 years) Arab migrant populations, used qualitative methodology, explored the factors influencing physical activity as a primary aim, and were published in English. The 10-item Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist was used to assess methodological quality of individual studies. The results of the studies were thematically synthesised using the qualitative software Quirkos v1.6. Results A total of 15 studies were included, with the largest proportion of studies conducted in Australia, followed by the United States, Netherlands, Sweden, and then Canada. Five studies exclusively sampled Arab migrant populations in their study. A total of 7 major themes influencing physical activity among Arab migrants emerged from the synthesis: culture and religion, competing commitments and time, social factors, health-related influences, accessibility issues, outdoor environment, and the migratory experience. Conclusions The findings of this review highlighted the various factors influencing the physical activity levels of Arab migrant adults. While many of the factors influencing physical activity are shared with those experienced by other populations (e.g., time constraints), for Arab migrant populations there are other more unique factors closely associated with culture and religion that appear to influence their levels of physical activity. The findings of this review could be used to inform the design of physical activity interventions targeting Arab migrant populations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, 6 Muslim Arab female undergraduate students cited lack of parental support, encouragement, and modeling and friends' support as factors that influenced PA [11]. These same women also cited varying degrees of flexibility toward adapting to PA facilities/opportunities that were constructed and planned with non-Muslims in mind [11]. As a result, it is not surprising that among 214 Middle Eastern-American university students 29.3% of females vs. 43.9% of males averaged ≥10,000 steps/day over 1 week [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formative Evaluation of a Pilot Study of a University Exercise Class for Female Muslims

Kahan¹,

Amini²,

Osman³

2018

JPAR

Self Cite

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Young adult Muslim women in western societies encounter barriers to exercise participation due in part to a lack of gyms offering women-only classes. Among university students, exercise might be further compromised by competing demands on time due to academics/work. We piloted a women-only exercise program (Sisters Exercising Together) for Muslims at one university in the southwest United States during the 2016-2017 academic year. We used attendance rosters (n = 6 participants), and focus group interview (n = 3) and informal interview (n = 47) techniques to assess the feasibility of and satisfaction with the program and to determine reasons for (low) attendance. Although conceptually well-received, intrapersonal factors related to perception of time, personal preferences, and motivation were most responsible for non-attendance. Potential courses of action for improving attendance should focus on improving self-regulation skills and enhancing social support.

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Arab American College Students' Physical Activity and Body Composition: Reconciling Middle East-West Differences Using the Socioecological Model

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Addressing physical inactivity in Omani adults: perceptions of public health managers

Addressing physical inactivity in Omani adults: perceptions of public health managers

A systematic review of qualitative studies exploring the factors influencing the physical activity levels of Arab migrants

Formative Evaluation of a Pilot Study of a University Exercise Class for Female Muslims

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