Dissertation

Brenda L. Swearingin

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Human Performance and Leisure Studies

School of Education

North Carolina A&T State University

214a Corbett Center

Greensboro, NC

The Comparison of Lifestyle Activities and Traditional Aerobic Exercise for the Modification  of Obesity-Related Risk Factors in African-American Women:

Recent studies have estimated that one-half of African-American women are overweight or obese, a condition associated with numerous serious health-related disorders. Recent recommendations by the US Surgeon General suggest the accumulation of 150 minutes of physical activity each week will provide health benefits and has been shown to reduce obesity related-risk factors. My dissertation is a comparison of these weekly exercise recommendation accumulated in single daily bouts of traditional aerobic exercise and multiple daily bouts integrated into activities of daily living in African-American women, ages 18-55. It involves the random assignment of 60 volunteers to a control or either of two exercise groups. Data for each of the following variables is being collected before and after the sixteen week program including: 1) total cholesterol; 2) low-density lipoproteins (LDL); 3) high density lipoproteins (HDL); 4) triglycerides; 5) systolic and diastolic blood pressure; 6) insulin resistance; [HOMA and QUICKI]; 7) body composition including, waist circumference, skinfold measures, sagittal diameter; and, percent body fat, and 8) C-reactive protein. It is expected that multiple-bout exercise integrated into daily activity will be as effective as traditionally prescribed daily single-bout aerobic exercise in the modification of obesity-related risk factors in a high-risk, previously sedentary population.