A Home Exercise Program (DVD) for Women with Infants and Young Children

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Becoming a mother is a significant transition in a woman's life. It is associated with considerable social, personal, career/job, and financial changes. Such transitions can precipitate major changes in health behaviors , like physical activity (PA). Up to one-year postpartum 57 percent of women are rarely or never exercising. With subsequent pregnancies women often remain sedentary since it can be difficult for them to be regularly active with two or more children under the age of five. Thus, new mothers are at risk for future weight gain and the chronic diseases associated with a higher body mass index (BMI). Ethnic minorities have higher rates of pre-pregnancy inactivity and gain more weight following childbirth, which places them at increased risk for heart disease and other chronic diseases consistent with known health disparities in ethnic minorities. Over 80 percent of U.S. households have a DVD player. Exercise DVDs are a safe and convenient PA option for new mother s who have time and mobility constraints. None of the exercise DVDs currently on the market provides behavioral skills information or depicts ethnic minority mothers exercising with their baby. Current exercise DVDs also do not offer different exercise opt ions women can pick and choose, over time, as their baby grows and his/her weight changes. A main goal of this STTR is to test the feasibility of an exercise DVD from which viewers can select a range of aerobic and strengthening exercises to create exercis e sessions that change, over time, to meet their preferences related to exercise type, session duration, intensity, and format (e.g., exercising with/without their infant or a toddler). The conceptual model on which the DVD is based (e.g., exercise options ) comes from formative research, including a pilot study, we conducted with mothers of infants. Multiethnic women with infants will be recruited from Hawaii and Colorado to participate in focus groups where they will validate the conceptual model for the D VD by providing input on the feasibility of the specific exercise choices depicted on the DVD. We will over-recruit African-American and Hispanic women for ethnic- specific groups. Focus groups will also review the narrator's advice on key personal, social , and environmental factors, derived from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), that have been shown to be associated with the initiation of a regular PA in new mothers. Using the focus group results, Klein Buendel multimedia designers will develop a sample video segment, storyboards, and scripts that will serve as models of the exercise choices and menu options on the DVD including: 1) video of ethnic minority women exercising, 2) DVD multi-path branching of a menu, and 3) int egration of graphic and multimedia designs. Usability tests and additional focus groups with new mothers will evaluate the DVD's features including the look and feel' of PA formats (e.g., a split screen feature) and women's' preferences for navigating the DVD menu. Our innovative exercise DVD will serve as a model for the design of home-based multimedia exercise products for postpartum women, especially those from under-represented ethnic minorities. Public Health Relevance: Following childbirth, most wome n, especially ethnic minority women, rarely or never exercise; this can increase their chances of getting diabetes or other serious diseases in the future. Exercise DVDs are a safe and easy way for new mothers to become more active, thus the main goal of t his STTR application is to determine the feasibility of an exercise DVD that provides advice on how to become more active and demonstrates different types of exercises women can pick and choose to create an exercise session that is personalized to their fi tness level, interest in actively exercising with their baby, interest in exercising with another young child, or their interest in having the DVD capture t