Exercise - Women in California

California

Regular exercise is an essential aspect of healthy living. People who engage in regular physical activity benefit from many positive physical and mental health outcomes. Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes a week) is associated with reduced risk of:

• Cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and stroke.
• Hypertension and Type 2 diabetes.
• Certain cancers, including bladder, breast and colon cancer.
• Depression, sleep problems and anxiety. 
• Adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as gestational diabetes and postpartum depression. Making sure to exercise in the first year after giving birth can decrease symptoms of postpartum depression.
• Influenza and pneumonia mortality.

Women who do not exercise regularly often point to lack of time as the reason for inactivity, particularly those who have children, jobs or domestic chores after work hours. Feeling unsafe due to neighborhood crime is also recognized as a significant barrier to physical activity among women.

According to America’s Health Rankings analysis, the prevalence of exercise is higher among:

• Women ages 18-24 compared with women ages 35-44.
• Multiracial and white women compared with Hispanic women.
• Women with a college degree compared with women with less than a high school education.
• Women with annual household incomes of $50,000 or more compared with those who have incomes below $25,000.
• Women living in metropolitan areas compared with women in non-metropolitan areas.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults move more and sit less throughout the day and that some physical activity is better than none. Guidelines for adults include:

• At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity (or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity) aerobic physical activity weekly, such as running, riding a bike, dancing or swimming.
• Muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups, two or more days a week.

The use of publicly accessible outdoor spaces, such as bike lanes, sidewalks, hiking trails and parks, is also associated with an increase in exercise levels among employed women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes several recommendations for community efforts to increase physical activity, including built environment approaches to make it easier for people to walk, run, bike, skate or use wheelchairs to get to where they want to go. The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) has found that the median economic benefit of improved health from creating or enhancing access to parks, trails and greenways is $3.10 for each dollar invested.

A behavioral lifestyle intervention implemented through a smartphone app has been effective in increasing physical activity among pregnant women with overweight or obesity. Another study suggests that wearable fitness trackers may help motivate and maintain physical activity. The CPSTF includes a list of strategies to increase physical activity, including worksite digital health and telephone interventions, as well as social support interventions in community settings.

Healthy People 2030 has several physical activity objectives, including reducing the proportion of adults who do no physical activity in their free time and increasing the proportion of adults who do enough aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.

Ainscough, Kate M., Eileen C. O’Brien, Karen L. Lindsay, Maria A. Kennelly, Elizabeth J. O’Sullivan, Orna A. O’Brien, Mary McCarthy, Giuseppe De Vito, and Fionnuala M. McAuliffe. “Nutrition, Behavior Change and Physical Activity Outcomes From the PEARS RCT — An mHealth-Supported, Lifestyle Intervention Among Pregnant Women With Overweight and Obesity.” Frontiers in Endocrinology 10, no. 938 (February 4, 2020). https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00938.

Gell, Nancy M., and Danielle D. Wadsworth. “How Do They Do It: Working Women Meeting Physical Activity Recommendations.” American Journal of Health Behavior 38, no. 2 (March 2014): 208–17. https://doi.org/10.5993/ajhb.38.2.6.

Lindgren, Teri, Julie Hooper, and Yoshimi Fukuoka. “Perceptions and Experiences of Women Participating in a Digital Technology–Based Physical Activity Intervention (the mPED Trial): Qualitative Study.” JMIR Public Health Surveill 5, no. 4 (December 20, 2019): e13570. https://doi.org/10.2196/13570.

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Singleton, Chelsea R., Fikriyah Winata, Kaustubh V. Parab, Oluwafikayo S. Adeyemi, and Susan Aguiñaga. “Violent Crime, Physical Inactivity, and Obesity: Examining Spatial Relationships by Racial/Ethnic Composition of Community Residents.” Journal of Urban Health 100, no. 2 (April 2023): 279–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-023-00716-z.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018. https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf.

Webber, Bryant J., Heather C. Yun, and Geoffrey P. Whitfield. “Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Mortality from Influenza and Pneumonia: A Cohort Study of 577 909 US Adults.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 57, no. 19 (May 16, 2023): 1231–37. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106644.