Grassroots effort boosts women's activity levels

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A community-based program is an effective way to help women exercise more and it can also help reduce their blood pressure, researchers from Iran report.

Dr. Raha Pazoki and colleagues from the Bushehr University of Medical Science in Bushehr used a technique called community-based participatory research to develop the program, in which local community leaders played a key role in designing and implementing the intervention.

The researchers chose 335 healthy women, ranging in age from 25 to 64, who were randomly assigned to eight-week, volunteer-run intervention modeled on an American Heart Association physical activity program for women, or to a "control" group - with no physical activity program.

Fifty-three volunteers visited program participants each week at home, giving them audiotapes including music and exercise instructions.

Before the program, just 3 percent of the study participants engaged in moderate activity for at least half an hour at least five days a week. By the end of the program, 13.4 percent met this weekly exercise goal, Pazoki's team reports.

The percentage of women in the control group who met this activity guideline only rose from 2.5 percent to 3 percent over the same time period.

At the end of the program, participants were active for about 140 minutes each week, compared with about 40 minutes for women in the control group. Program participants also had an average 10-point decline in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading), while systolic blood pressure actually rose by 2 points for women in the control group.

"The current findings support the use of community-based approach as a feasible and effective healthcare delivery strategy for community health promotion at a grassroots level," the researchers write, pointing out that the program also showed "promising indicators of sustainability over time."

SOURCE: BMC Public Health, August 23, 2007.