Effects of culturally adaptive walking intervention on cardiovascular disease risks for middle-aged Korean-Chinese female migrant workers

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a standard treatment (ST) walking program compared to an ST walking program enhanced (enhanced treatment, ET) on cardiovascular health outcomes among Korean-Chinese female migrant workers in Korea. A quasi-experimental sequential design was used. A total of 132 Korean-Chinese women without contraindications to physical activity participated in the study. Both ST and ET groups had monthly goal settings; the ET group received text messages to encourage walking adherence and acculturation. A significant decrease was found in 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), blood pressure, fasting glucose, body mass index, and waist-hip ratio at weeks 12 and 24 in both groups, but there were no significant group differences. This indicates that culturally adaptive walking intervention is a promising way to reduce CVD risk factors for underserved Korean-Chinese migrant women.

KEYWORDS:

• Acculturative stress
• migrant workers
• physical activity

Funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (NRF-2012-R1A1A3019009).