The comparison of the effects of lifestyle activity and structured cardiovascular exercise on obesity-related risk factors of African-American women ages 22-55.

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Brenda Swearingin (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Laurie Wideman

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of lifestyle activity modification (LA) and structured exercise (Cardio) on obesity-related factors in sedentary African American women. Subjects were randomized to a control group, a Cardio group, or LA group for a twelve week intervention. The study examined the intervention effects on physical activity patterns, blood lipids, glucose & insulin response, blood pressure, cardiovascular fitness and body composition. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for pre-post differences in the dependent variables revealed significant baseline differences between groups for LDL cholesterol only. Thus, pre-post treatment differences for LDL were assessed using an ANCOVA model, with baseline LDL as the covariate. Significant pre-post effects were observed for cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.024), physical activity level (p=0.000), total cholesterol (p=0.006), and HDL cholesterol (p=0.017). Significant pre-post by treatment condition interaction effects were observed for body weight (p=0.001), body composition (percent body fat) (p<0.001), and cardiorespiratory fitness (predicted VO2max) (p=0.024). Although post-hoc analysis failed to reveal significant differences among groups, there were slight trends (which merit further investigation) toward decreasing obesity-related risk within the 2 activity groups, when compared to Control.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2008
Keywords
African American women, Exercise, Lifestyle modification, Obesity, Overweight, Physical activity
Subjects
Exercise for women $x Health aspects.
Obesity in women $x Complications $x Management.
African American women $x Health and hygiene.
Exercise for women $x Health aspects.

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