A model for promoting physical activity among rural South African adolescent girls

Figures & data

Table 1 Topics covered in FGDs and key informant interviews

Focus group discussion topics: adolescent girls
• Perceived relationship between physical activity and health • Reasons for participating or not participating in physical activity • Satisfaction/happiness with their own level of physical activity • Influence of school, peers, and gender on physical activity • What sort(s) of physical activities they do and would like to do
Qualitative interview topics: adult key informants
• Physical activities that are organised for girls and boys (together and separately) • Sports competitions: who participates, who organises, how often, etc. • Gender and age differences in expectations and practice of physical activity • Challenges faced in organising physical activities, and how these are dealt with • How best to increase girls’ participation in physical activities

Fig. 1 Seven themes associated with girls’ levels of physical activity.

Table 2 Sports and other activities that girls undertake, and those they would like to do, ranked in order of preference

Sports or other activities that girls undertake (number of times mentioned)	Sports or other activities that girls would like to do (number of times mentioned)
Ladies football (9)	Dance (9)
Fetch water (9)	Netball (8)
Gardening (6)	Ladies football (5)
Cooking (6)	Tennis (4)
Cleaning (6)	Music (3)
Running/athletics (6)	Running/athletics (3)
Dance (5)	Volleyball (2)
Netball (5)	Javelin (2)
Fetch firewood (4)	Shot put (2)
Grind maize meal (3)	High jump (2)

Table 3 Possible interventions that could ameliorate the impact of the barriers to physical activities associated with the seven themes

Theme	Effect on PA	Modifiable?	Possible intervention
1. Poverty	• Stigma of poverty leads to inactivity: muscles are a sign of poverty, as poor girls have to work at home. Muscles are therefore to be avoided by being sedentary.	• Not as part of a PA intervention but can be used as a lever to promote PA	• Provide incentives for participation in sports, on a conditional cash transfer principle.
2. Body image ideals	• Conflicting peer group perspectives of both benefits and disadvantages of being thin and overweight.	• Yes	• Develop empowering messages about healthy weight and body image.
3. Gender	• Fewer opportunities for girls to be physically active. • Girls’ sports facilities are invariably worse than that for boys.	• Yes • Yes	• Promote girls-only activities, for ALL girls. • Promote female sports teachers and youth leaders. • Increase resources for acquiring and maintaining equipment and facilities (see also 7 below).
4. Parents and home life	• Parental fears of sexual activity of their daughters (coerced or not) and pregnancy; they want to keep them at home, where they are safe, and often physically inactive.	• Yes	• Encourage parental engagement and attendance at sports events where their daughters are participating.
5. Demographic factors	• Older teenagers tend to exercise less • The need for national identification documents can make it hard for undocumented migrants to participate in organised sports.	• Yes • No	• Offer the possibility for physical activities that older teenagers will want to engage in.
6. Perceived health effects of PA	• Perceived benefits of PA could lead to more activity; perceived risks of PA could lead to less activity.	• Yes	• Design appropriate health messages about PA.
7. Human and infrastructural resources	• Poor infrastructure and feelings of isolation reduce possibilities for the provision of organised physical activity.	• Yes	• Provide training and support for youth leaders and sports teachers. • Increase resources for acquiring and maintaining equipment and facilities.

PA=physical activity.

Fig. 2 A model for promoting leisure-time physical activity among rural South African adolescent girls.