Increasing physical activity with African–American women using Facebook™ and Pedometers

Abstract

More than 80 percent of African American women struggle with overweight and obesity. We implemented a 5‐week physical activity intervention using Facebook™ and pedometers with African American women. Twenty‐seven African American women participated in a single‐group pre/post design intervention to promote walking and physical activity. Participants were given access to a private Facebook™ group along with a free Omron Alvita pedometer. The five‐week intervention challenged participants to increase weekly daily steps and the number of days they were physically active. At the end of the intervention, participants had significantly increased their weekly steps by 190% as compared to baseline (p = .005). Nearly, 80% of participants reported being active two or more days per week as compared to baseline (35.7%). Technologies such as social media and pedometers can assist in educating individuals and improving physical activity. These findings are relevant to public health nurses when implementing programs to increase physical activity for African American women.

A Systematic Review of Internet-Based Interventions for the Prevention and Self-Management of Cardiovascular Diseases among People of African Descent

“…Two studies were predominantly concerned with CVD prevention [ 43 , 44 ]. The remaining 11 studies were mostly concerned with preventing or self-management of CVD risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, and smoking [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. One study explored the use of IbIs in the prevention and self-management of hypertension and diabetes [ 52 ].…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from 20 to 337 participants, and the mean age of participants was 50 years. Six studies utilised a female-only sampling frame [ 45 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 53 , 54 ], and the remaining seven focused predominantly on females (82.4%). Socioeconomic status, regional information, and prior internet usage were not reported universally.…”

“…Socioeconomic status, regional information, and prior internet usage were not reported universally. Eleven of the studies were RCTs [ 43 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ] and two were pre-test and post-test quasi-experiments [ 45 , 49 ]. The duration of follow-up in randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies varied between 30 days and 12 months.…”

“…Most studies were published during the last decade (85.7%). Participants were recruited from metropolitan areas [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 51 , 55 ], big academic medical facilities [ 49 ], primary care and outpatient clinics [ 52 , 54 ], churches [ 43 , 47 ], and an online community [ 50 , 53 ].…”

“…Migneault et al [ 50 ] utilised social cognitive theory, motivational interviewing, and transtheoretical models to design their intervention. The mobile health modalities used in the studies are social media [ 45 , 48 ], smartphone applications [ 43 , 44 , 52 , 55 ], voice technologies [ 50 , 54 ], online videos [ 47 ], and websites [ 46 , 49 , 51 , 53 , 55 ]. The intervention in one of the studies was in the form of website and smartphone applications [ 55 ].…”