Promoting physical activity in South Asian Muslim women through 'exercise on prescription'

Carroll R, Ali N, Azam N
Record ID 32002000365
English
Authors' objectives:

To review the literature relating to 'exercise on prescription' (EoP) schemes and South Asian Muslim women to provide the theoretical framework for the investigation.

To carry out a national survey of health authority districts with large South Asian populations in order to find out what schemes exist and what provision is made for these women.

To undertake case studies of schemes in which provision is made for South Asian Muslim women and to note good practice and issues arising.

To undertake and evaluate a pilot intervention programme with special provision for South Asian Muslim women.

To make recommendations for good practice in EoP schemes.

Authors' results and conclusions: There are some EoP schemes in which special provision is made for South Asian Muslim women; however, in many no such provision is made. The perceived barriers to exercise for these women include access to facilities, cost, childcare facilities, cultural codes of conduct and language. Some of the general issues in existing EoP schemes are a cause for concern, including communication and cooperation between parties and between agencies and the community, monitoring and evaluation. The pilot programme was seen as being successful both by the providers and the South Asian Muslim women who participated in it.
Authors' recommendations: While the research indicated that many EoP schemes have clear protocols and procedures and excellent facilities and programmes, many others suffer from shortcomings that need to be addressed, including communications between all participating parties and clarification of procedures. Consideration should be given to the needs of South Asian Muslim women, in the form of the use of local community facilities and the employment of bilingual and sympathetic staff. Costs to these women should be kept as low as possible and consideration should be given to the provision of childcare facilities. To be effective, EoP programmes should be long rather than short term.
Authors' methods: Review, Survey
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: http://www.hta.ac.uk/1058
Year Published: 2002
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: England, United Kingdom
MeSH Terms
  • Ethnicity
  • Exercise
  • Health Promotion
  • Physical Fitness
  • Women
Contact
Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK
Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Copyright: 2009 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.