Date of Award
5-6-2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Exercise Science, MS
First Advisor
Marla Graves
Committee Members
Brian Church; Jimmy Stillwell; Lance Bryant; Thomas Adams
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2010 P35
Abstract
African American females are a largely sedentary population, and because of this are an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Healthcare providers have prescribed an increase in physical activity and modification of diet to decrease the risk of onset of these diseases. Pedometers are currently being used to encourage and track physical activity levels in an effort to increase physical activity and decrease risk of hypokenetic diseases. Pedometers have been proven to increase the physical activity of an individual and decrease weight and blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to determine if African American females showed significant improvement in physical activity level by using a pedometer along with recommendations of activities to increase their daily step counts. Five participants wore pedometers for five weeks, and daily step counts were recorded. Demographic measures of height, weight, waist, hip, and resting blood pressure were recorded both pre and post pedometer intervention. A dependent t-test was run to determine if there was a significant increase the mean weekly step counts in week 1 (3,120.54 ± 1,191.96)and week 5 (5,081.83 ± 2529.07). A dependent t-test was also run to determine if significant changes were made between the pre and post demographic measures. No significance was found between the mean number of steps taken in week 1 and week 5 (P=.188) or the pre and post demographic measures of weight (P=.583), waist (P=.119), hip (P=.195), systolic blood pressure (P=.866), and diastolic blood pressure (P=.320). Using a pedometer as a means for significantly increasing physical activity for this sample of African American females proved to be insufficient.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Penn, William-Robert Lance, "Use of Pedometers to Increase Physical Activity in African American Females" (2010). Student Theses and Dissertations. 985.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/985
