TY - JOUR
T1 - Effectiveness of a bilingual heart health program for Greek-Australian women
AU - Brown, Wendy J.
AU - Lee, Christina
AU - Oyomopito, Rebecca
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was funded by the National Heart Foundation of Australia. We gratefully acknowledge the expert assistance of our migrant health worker, Sylvia Gray, and our fitness leader, Toni Avery. We would also like to thank the participants, as well as the Hamilton Greek Orthodox Church for providing the venue for this program, and the Newcastle Multicultural Neighbourhood Centre, for allowing us to use their premises for testing.
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - Women from Southern European countries have the highest body mass index and physical inactivity levels of any of Australia's migrant groups. Health promotion programs aimed at the wider community often fail to reach these women because of language and cultural barriers. The project examined the impact of a 12-week minimal-intervention heart health program on a community sample of Greek-Australian women. The program, conducted in a bilingual, interactive format and held in a Greek community centre, aimed to improve cardiovascular health and decrease obesity by increasing physical activity and reducing dietary saturated fat intake. Participants (n = 26) showed significant decreases in body mass index, skinfold measurements, exercising heart rates and diastolic blood pressure, which were well maintained at follow-up; these changes were not observed in a comparison group (n = 22). The project demonstrated that health promotion programs tailored specifically for groups of women from non English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) can be effective in modifying cardiovascular risk factors if an effort is made to address sociocultural and linguistic barriers to participation.
AB - Women from Southern European countries have the highest body mass index and physical inactivity levels of any of Australia's migrant groups. Health promotion programs aimed at the wider community often fail to reach these women because of language and cultural barriers. The project examined the impact of a 12-week minimal-intervention heart health program on a community sample of Greek-Australian women. The program, conducted in a bilingual, interactive format and held in a Greek community centre, aimed to improve cardiovascular health and decrease obesity by increasing physical activity and reducing dietary saturated fat intake. Participants (n = 26) showed significant decreases in body mass index, skinfold measurements, exercising heart rates and diastolic blood pressure, which were well maintained at follow-up; these changes were not observed in a comparison group (n = 22). The project demonstrated that health promotion programs tailored specifically for groups of women from non English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) can be effective in modifying cardiovascular risk factors if an effort is made to address sociocultural and linguistic barriers to participation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0029996588&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/heapro/11.2.117
DO - 10.1093/heapro/11.2.117
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0029996588
SN - 0957-4824
VL - 11
SP - 117
EP - 125
JO - Health Promotion International
JF - Health Promotion International
IS - 2
ER -
