“A Waste of Time”: Hispanic Women's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity

Abstract

Despite a lack of studies on Hispanic midlife women's physical activity, the existing studies have indicated that Hispanics' ethnic-specific attitudes toward physical activity contributed to their lack of physical activity. However, little is still clearly known about Hispanic midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity. The purpose of this study was to explore Hispanic midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity using a feminist perspective. The study was a 6-month qualitative online forum among 23 Hispanic women who were recruited through Internet communities/groups. The data were collected using 17 online forum topics on attitudes toward physical activity and ethnic-specific contexts. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three major themes emerged from the data analysis process: (a) “family first, no time for myself,” (b) “little exercise, but naturally healthy,” and (c) “dad died of a heart attack.” Although some of the women perceived the importance of physical activity due to their family history of chronic diseases, the study participants thought that physical activity would be a waste of time in their busy daily schedules. These findings provided directions for future health care practice and research to increase physical activity among Hispanic midlife women.

KEYWORDS:

• physical activity
• attitudes
• midlife
• women
• online forum

Notes

This study was conducted as part of a larger study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NINR/NHLBI) (R01NR010568). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Note. *1 = none of the time to 4 = most of the time.

**1 = awful to 6 = excellent/reliability of the acculturation scale: 0.68.

Note. *1 = very unhealthy to 5 = very healthy.

**Premenopausal = having menses in the previous 3 months with no increase in irregularity; perimenopausal = having menstrual bleeding in the previous 3 months with increasing irregularity in cycle length or having menses in the previous 12 months but not in the previous 3 months; postmenopausal = having no menstrual bleeding in the previous 12 months (not due to medication, pregnancy, or severe weight loss).