STAGES OF CHANGE PREDICT MEANS STEPS/DAY IN OBESE, OLDER WOMEN

Abstract

543 To assess physical activity (PA) levels of obese, older women, N=33 women, M Age 62.9, M BMI 33.0, were categorized by Stage of Exercise Change (SOC) (Prochaska & Marcus, 1994), then, for 7 consecutive days, recorded steps/day with Yamax Digiwalker, and kept a PA log of routine and leisure time PA (Ainsworth, 1997). At the end of 7 days, women recalled their PA using the 7-day Modified Activity Interview (MAI) (Hellman, 1996). Results showed a significant correlation between SOC and average steps per day(P=<.004). Step data ranging from 902 to 8103 steps/day were clustered into quartiles with averages for each group of 2537 (N=9), 4078 (N=10), 5499 (N=6), and 7193 (N=8) respectively. Significant correlations between the SOC“comtemplator” group and the lowest step quartile, and the SOC“maintenance” group and the highest step quartile groups were found (P=.05). No significant difference in age, BMI, education or income was found between any step quartile groups. Women in SOC “preparation: and“action” groups fell within the middle two quartiles of step data. Due to sample size, significant differences between these two groups were not found. PAL and MAI data yield an average kcal.kg.-1.d.-1 of 28.65(SD=5.9) (range 25.6) and 28.4 (SD 6.4) (range 28.5) respectively. A significant correlation between PAL and MAI was found (p=.002), but no correlation was found between PAL/MAI data and SOC/step data. In this study, SOC appears to predict mean steps/day, particularly in very sedentary and active obese, older women.