Abstract
Previous research has found churches to be effective at delivering physical activity (PA) programs to their congregants. Mosques, however, have not been extensively studied. Therefore, we quantified U.S. Islamic centers’ advertisement of PA programming and examined their programming characteristics. We conducted a content analysis of the websites of 773 eligible Islamic centers of which 206 centers in 32 states advertised PA programming. We categorized PA by program type: camping, fitness classes, sports, youth programs, and irregular offerings. We calculated descriptive statistics by program type for specific activity, frequency/duration/volume, participant/instructor sex, and instructor religion. Youth group (44%) and sports (23%) programs were most and least frequently advertised, respectively. Most centers (66%) that posted information on PA programming advertised only one program type. Men and Muslims taught most activities. Most activities—except for fitness classes—were advertised to a male audience. Islamic centers should offer and advertise additional PA programming—especially for women—and better utilize their websites for promoting such programming. Individual Islamic centers and Islamic- and non-religion based public health agencies can utilize our findings to fashion future PA offerings.
Highlights
The World Health Organization defines an adequate level of physical activity (PA) as 150 min/wk of moderate PA, 75 min of vigorous PA, or an equivalent combination [1]
The patchwork methods used for data collection, suggest that there is no central repository for mosque locations in the U.S we consulted a database of masjids, mosques, and Islamic centers in the U.S [36]
We focused on identifying Islamic centers or named organizations over organizations referred to only as mosques/masjids, as the former implies an organization that offers a constellation of health, human, and social services while the latter implies an organization whose primary services are related to prayer [37]
Summary
The World Health Organization defines an adequate level of physical activity (PA) as 150 min/wk of moderate PA, 75 min of vigorous PA, or an equivalent combination [1]. There are many benefits from regular participation in PA, including risk reduction of some cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome [2]. Physical inactivity disparities exist on a global level, including those based on wealth, urbanicity, sex, and age [1,4]. Physical inactivity disparity based on religion exists: 38 Muslim countries were 1.2 times more likely to be physically inactive than 94 non-Muslim countries, and within the Muslim countries, women’s physical inactivity prevalence (35.5%) was 1.4 times greater than men’s [5]. Insufficient PA is a risk factor for overweight, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and (perhaps) their prevalence is alarmingly and disproportionately high among various ethnic groups of Muslims and Muslim women living in the United States (U.S.) [6,7,8,9]
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