Abstract
Background: Little is understood about using mobile health (mHealth) technology to improve cardiovascular (CV) health among African-American women in resource-limited communities. Methods: We conducted the Washington, D.C. CV Health and Needs Assessment in predominantly African-American churches in city wards 5, 7, and 8 with the lowest socioeconomic status based on community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. The assessment measured CV health factors: body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose and cholesterol, blood pressure, fruit/vegetable (F/V) intake, physical activity (PA), and smoking. Participants were trained to use a PA monitoring wristband to measure 30 days of PA, wirelessly upload the PA data to hubs at the participating churches, and access their data from a church/home computer. CV health factors were compared across weight classes. Results: Among females (N = 78; 99 % African-American; mean age = 59 years), 90 % had a BMI categorized as overweight/obese. Across weight classes, PA decreased and self-reported sedentary time (ST) increased (p ≤ 0.05). Diastolic blood pressure and glucose increased across weight classes (p ≤ 0.05); however, cholesterol, glucose, and BP were near intermediate CV health goals. Conclusions: Decreased PA and increased ST are potential community intervention targets for overweight and obese African-American women in resource-limited Washington D.C. areas. mHealth technology can assist in adapting CBPR intervention resources to improve PA for African-American women in resource-limited communities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 876-883 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Cardiovascular health disparities
- Obesity
- Women
- mHealth technology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Anthropology
- Sociology and Political Science
- Health Policy
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health