Group effort helps motivate young mothers to exercise.

2002 AUG 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Giving young mothers the opportunity to meet in groups and develop strategies for overcoming obstacles to exercising may be a critical ingredient in helping them get much-needed physical activity, a new study reveals.

Women who were given only written information on how to increase physical activity were no more likely to increase their exercise levels than women who did not receive the literature, reported lead author Yvette D. Miller, of the University of Queensland in Australia.

But women who both received the information and attended discussion groups to develop personalized exercise strategies were more likely, if only in the short term, to achieve target exercise levels.

"A lack of confidence in overcoming constraints and a distinct lack of partner support emerged as issues affecting physical activity participation, and formed the basis for the development of intervention strategies" in the discussion groups, Miller observed. Specific strategies included organizing mother-friendly aerobics classes with available childcare and encouraging local organizations to schedule activities at times convenient for mothers.

The researchers' findings appeared in a physical activity supplement to the August 2002 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Having children in the household represents a life stage when women understandably find it difficult to engage in leisure-time physical activity," Miller explained.

Exercise interventions that include community-wide involvement have generally proved more successful than interventions that simply provide individual guidance. So Miller and her colleagues explored the possibility that printed materials coupled with local discussion groups where the women could develop their own proactivity strategies might prove more successful than printed materials alone in helping women at this life stage get more exercise.