Group Effort Helps Motivate Young Mothers to Exercise

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, reports lead author Yvette D. Miller, B.A., 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 observes. 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 appear in a physical activity supplement to the August 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 explains.

Exercise interventions that include community-wide involvement have generally proven 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 pro-activity strategies might prove more successful than printed materials alone in helping women at this life stage get more exercise.

The researchers recruited 554 mothers, averaging 33 years old, with at least one child enrolled at a childcare center approximately 100 miles from Sydney. Each woman completed an initial survey that provided basic personal data and measured her activity level.

The investigators then divided the women into three matched groups. The first, a control group, received neither advice nor support. The second received only booklets describing the benefits of activity and suggesting ways to overcome barriers to exercise commonly faced by mothers of young children. The third received the booklets, plus the opportunity to participate in a discussion group at their child care center; at this meeting, they could identify and resolve their personal barriers to physical activity, as well as suggest community-wide changes that would make it easier for mothers to be physically active.

At the study's beginning, the investigators noted, fewer than half of the women in each group met a guideline for adequate physical activity of two and a half hours of moderate activity per week.

When the researchers re-checked the women's activity levels eight weeks later, then again five months later, they found that the women who received only booklets were no more likely than the controls to be more physically active.

In contrast, the booklet-plus-discussion group intervention "resulted in significant short-term -- increases in the proportion of mothers who were categorized as sufficiently active for health benefits," Miller reports, with 59.9 percent meeting their target at the eight-week mark. This improvement, however, was not sustained at the five-month mark.

Miller reports that the strategies developed through the discussion groups had at least two measurable impacts on the women that apparently helped them become more active: greater confidence that they could meet their activity target, and a greater sense that their partner supported their efforts. Of interest, Miller notes, the perceived improvements in partner support -- like the improvements in exercise -- were not enduring.

Moreover, the researchers believe, "the involvement of women in -- planning and implementation -- is likely to have fostered feelings of empowerment and community ownership, as well as [increasing] the relevance of strategies." Unlike the printed materials, they note, participation in the discussion groups was not "imposed" on the women.

The study was supported by funds from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.