Paper: Midlife White Women's Attitudes toward Physical Activity in the U.S. Culture (Sigma Theta Tau International's 21st International Nursing Research Congress)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Eun-Ok Im, RN, MPH, PhD, CNS, FAAN¹
Young Ko, PhD, RN²
Bokim Lee, PhD, MPH, RN³
Hyenam Hwang, MSN, RN³
Kyung Hee Yoo, PhD, RN⁴
Wonshik Chee, PhD⁵
Alexa Stuifbergen, PhD, RN, FAAN²
Lorraine O. Walker, RN, EdD¹
1School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
3Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
4Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
5Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Learning Objective 1: To understand midlife White women's attitudes toward physical activity.

Learning Objective 2: To understand unique cultural contexts of the U.S. that may or may not promote physical activity of midlife White women.

Purpose: With few studies comparing attitudes toward physical activity among multi-ethnic groups, the existing studies suggest certain ethnic-specific attitudes toward physical activity. Despite these findings on the ethnic-specific attitudes, very little is still known about midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity, even among White women in the U.S. The purpose of the study was to explore White midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity through a 6-month online forum. A feminist perspective was used to theoretically guide the study. Methods: This was a feminist qualitative online forum study among 22 midlife White women recruited through the Internet. Using 10 online forum topics on attitudes toward physical activity, a 6-month long online forum was conducted. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis including line-by-line coding, categorization, and theme extraction. Results: Three major themes were extracted through the data analysis process: “Thinking, but no action,” “supportive, but sedentary American culture,” and “trying to motivate myself.” The women perceived the importance and benefits of physical activity, but they could not do physical activity regularly because of various reasons (e.g., not enough time/cost, physical and emotional limitations, gender issues, etc). The women perceived that American culture is very supportive for promotion of physical activity, but it is also sedentary in nature. The women were trying to motivate themselves to be engaged in physical activity through diverse strategies (e.g., trying to have a habit of physical activity, setting a goal, trying to do exercise with friends and/or pets, etc). Conclusion: The findings strongly support that midlife White women's attitudes toward physical activity are positive in general, but there are several barriers linked to unique cultural contexts of the U.S. In promoting physical activity of midlife White women, the unique cultural contexts need to be considered.

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