Pedometer Measurement of Physical Activity and Chronic Disease Risk Factors of Obese Lower Socioeconomic African American Women
in Journal of Physical Activity and HealthClick name to view affiliation
Background:
To evaluate physical activity with pedometers and health markers of chronic disease in obese, lower socioeconomic African American women.
Methods:
Thirty-five women (48 ± 8 y) wore pedometers for 2 weeks. One-way analyses of variances were used to compare age, weight, body mass indices (BMI), and health markers of chronic disease (including blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, glycosylated hemoglobin, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein) between women who were classified by steps per day as sedentary (SED < 5,000; 2,941 ± 1,161 steps/d) or active (ACT ≥ 5,000; 7,181 ± 2,398 steps/d).
Results:
ACT had significantly lower BMI (ACT: 37.2 ± 5.6; SED: 44.4 ± 7.2 kg/m2) and hip circumferences (ACT: 37.2 ± 5.6; SED: 44.4 ± 37.2 cm) and higher total cholesterol (ACT: 230 ± 53; SED: 191 ± 32 mg/dL) than SED. There were no differences in health markers of chronic disease between SED and ACT. Pearson product moment correlations showed significant negative correlations between steps/d and weight (r = –.42), BMI (r = –.46), and hip circumference (r = –.47).
Conclusions:
Increased levels of physical activity were associated with reduced BMI and hip circumferences but were not associated with lower health markers for chronic disease in obese, lower socioeconomic African American women.
Panton, Kingsley, Moffat, Haymes, and Toole are with the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, 436 Sandels Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL; Kushnick is with Ohio University, School of Recreation and Sport Sciences, Athens, OH.
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