Environmental, Policy, and Cultural Factors Related to Physical Activity in a Diverse Sample of Women: The Women's Cardiovascular Health Network Project-Summary and Discussion

Abstract

Ethnic minority and low-income populations have the highest rates of cardiovascular disease and the lowest rates of leisure-time physical activity. Because physical activity reduces the risk of premature death and disability from cardiovascular disease, researching correlates to such activity in these populations is an important aspect of health promotion in the US. To identify environmental, policy, and cultural barriers to physical activity in women, The Women's Cardiovascular Health Network Project conducted focus groups with White, African American, Latina, and American Indian women aged 20-50 years. The focus groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed with QSR NUD*IST qualitative software using a set of codes developed a priori by the research team. Family priorities were a main barrier to physical activity in all the groups. Having multiple roles as wife, mother, daughter, and as an active community member was mentioned as time-consuming and difficult, leaving little time or energy for exercise. Cultural barriers, which varied among the groups, included acculturation issues, lack of community support, and lack of past experience with exercise. Physical activity interventions suggested involved work programs, family-friendly programs, increased social support, and the availability of safer places to exercise such as parks, well-lit walking trails, and recreation centers. Many of the barriers were common to all groups (e.g., family priority) while some were unique (e.g., lack of community support). Assessing and addressing the issues raised should be considered when planning physical activity interventions for these populations.Physical activity is an important part of health promotion and disease prevention (USDHHS, 1996). Reducing disparities in health and increasing physical activity levels in all populations is paramount to the future health of our nation. For physical activity interventions to be effective, however, they must adequately address barriers to activity and promote factors that enable it. As indicated by our projects in this series, these barriers and enablers are both common and unique across race/ethnicity. Common barriers, such as lack of time, have been cited in

A Systematic Literature Review of Sport and Physical Activity Participation in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Migrant Populations

“…Language was commonly identified as a barrier to participation in sport [58] and physical activity [59,60] and language difficulties interacted significantly with other correlates identified [46,58]. Blue collar workers expended more energy than white collar or non-workers [61], however non-workers engaged in more house-hold physical activity than blue and white collar workers [61].…”

“…The author suggests that perhaps external factors such as community and social support may be more critical for adopting physical activity behaviours than self-confidence in the person for this specific group [64]. Feelings of isolation [70,71], fatigue [e.g., 59, 72] and an increased number of barriers [e.g., 23,66] were largely associated with lower physical activity participation.…”

“…Enjoyment, attitudes and knowledge of sport and physical activity were also important predictors [59,71]. For example, attitudes to the importance of physical activity [24,84] and the amount of activity peers were engaged in [85] influenced physical activity positively.…”

“…These included access to information [44,70,76,91], lack of time [69,70], safety [43,51], geographic isolation [44,59,77], walkability (neighbourhood characteristics facilitating walking including sidewalks, facilities, aesthetics etc.) [92], facilities [91,93], weather [38, A review of sport and physical activity in culturally and linguistically diverse migrants 16 82], type of activity [68,69], transport [60,77], behaviour of others [46,71] and cost [44,68].…”

Women Bound to Be Active: One Year Follow-Up to an Innovative Pilot Intervention to Increase Physical Activity and Self-Worth in Women

“…Certain factors contribute to inactivity (i.e., time, lack of motivation, no support etc.) (Eyler & Vest, 2002); however, efforts to determine what will help women sustain PA over time remain an area of interest and a knowledge gap in the area of public health (McAuley, Jerome, Elavsky, Marquez, & Ramsey, 2003;Wilbur, Miller, Chandler, & McDevitt, 2003).…”