Rural African American women's perception of exercise.

Purpose: To obtain information to describe African American women's perception of exercise.

Design: Focus group sessions were employed to uncover information related to African American women's perceptions of exercise in this qualitative study. Two sessions were conducted with 10 African American women two different fellowship halls in rural Alabama community churches.

Method: Interview questions derived from the literature were used to guide the sessions. Demographic data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The interview guide, copies of all transcripts, participant demographic information, and copies of all written field notes were used to facilitate content analysis of the qualitative data.

Findings: An overriding pattern, "Improve Health", was identified from the data. Three themes, "Exercise is Work", "Feel Good", and "Lose Weight/Look Better", were identified from this pattern. Descriptors of exercise, barriers, and motivators were also derived from the data.

Conclusions: The participants provided definitions of exercise in terms of their personal perspectives. They also provided descriptors of what they considered to be motivators and barriers to their engaging in a regular exercise regimen.