COMPARISON OF OUTCOMES OF WELLNESS EDUCATION AND EXERCISE ON THE HEALTH OF OLDER AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN. Sheila T. Watts* Program in Physical Therapy, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether instruction in the risk of heart disease increases the compliance with regular exercise or activity, impacts on perceived health and outcome expectation for exercise for older African American womomen. BACKGROUNDS/SIGNIFICANCE: Heart disease is the number one cause of death for African American women in Connecticut. When compared to white Americans, African Americans age 55-84 are twice as likely to die from coronary heart disease and 69% more likely to die from stroke. Research regarding the management of heart disease has included such factors as diet, obesity, lack of exercise and a predisposition to hypertension. There has been minimal research regarding the effect of education on risk factors on changing lifestyles or habits. SUBJECTS: The participants in this project were older African American women (64 years and older) who lived independently in their own homes and regularly attended church. Participants had to meet the following criteria to participate in the study: age greater than 62, African American ethnicity, able to ambulate independently with no more than a straight cane, the ability to read/understand English for the questionnaires and documented ability to safely participate in an exercise program by participant's physician. Criteria for exclusion included dementia, as documented by the physician clearance form, self or physician report of severe coronary or respiratory disease (MI, angina, COPD, asthma, CHF or cardiac/pulmonary surgery), vascular insufficiency/intermittent claudication within the last 6 months, self or physician report of musculoskeletal conditions that would impair the ability to exercise (joint replacement or other orthopedic surgical procedure, fracture or other limiting condition within the last 6 months, self or physician report of cancer diagnosis or cure within the past 6 months self or physician report of stroke, TIA or other neurological condition within the past 6 months or significant residual impairment from earlier neurological events, self or physician report of a fall within the previous 6 months. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The participants were recruited from two predominately African American churches. They completed pretest and 2 post test surveys and participated in a 7 week Tai Chi exercise program. The instruments of measure were the Outcome Expectation for Exercise scale, SF-36, a cardiac risk factor survey adapted from the American Heart Association and frequency of participation in exercise. ANALYSES: The experimental and control groups both completed a pretest and 2 post-test surveys. The data was summarized in a descriptive form utilizing means and standard deviations for the information collected. RESULTS: 19 African American women participated in the study. The experimental group consisted of 4 subjects and the control inclded 15. Frequency of participation of the experimental and control groups were 89.29% and 80.95% respectively. The mean scores for the Outcome Expectation for Exercise Scale pretest for the experimental and control groups were 3.89 and 3.96 respectively. Post test 1 scores were 3.92 for the experimental and 4.19 for the control group. The final post test scores were 3.81 for the experimental group and 3.39 for the control. The risk factor survey scores for the experimental group were 32.5% for the pretest and post test 1. The control scores were 44.7% for the pretest and 40.7% for post-test 1. The post test 2 scores were 42.5% for the experimental group and 42.0% for the control. The Physical Component Summary (PCS) derived from aggregate scores of the SF-36 ranged from 23.86 to 58.73. The mean scores of the control group exceeded gender and age norms and the experimental was slightly below the normative scores. Both groups were above the norms for the Mental Component Summary (MCS) which reflected perceived mental health. CONCLUSIONS: There appeared to be only minimal differences in the dependent variables for the two groups after the intervention of cardiac risk factor education. The consistently high scores for all dependent variables indicates these participants demonstrated strong perceived physical and mental health status, in addition to significant expectations in regards to exercise. Tai Chi exercise can be an alternative form of aerobic exercise for African American women. FUNDING SOURCE: Council of Graduate Students at Sacred Heart University KEYWORDS: education, exercise, African American women, heart disease Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.