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    Exploring physical activity profiles of Māori, Pacific and European women from Aotearoa New Zealand : implications for body composition and metabolic health : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Nutritional Sciences at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

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    Abstract
    Background: Regular physical activity provides extensive health benefits, and is a key modifiable risk factor for chronic disease. Aims and objectives: The research aim was to robustly explore the physical activity profiles of Māori, Pacific and European women aged 16-45 years, living in New Zealand, to understand ethnic differences in their physical activity profiles and its consequences on body composition and metabolic health markers. Objectives were to: investigate the challenges of collecting hip-worn accelerometer data; determine ethnic differences in physical activity levels, and associated disease risk of being overweight-obese; investigate whether substituting sedentary behaviour with equal time in physical activity can predict improved health markers; examine recreational physical activity preferences to make ethnic-specific suggestions for meeting physical activity guidelines. Methods: Participants were 406 healthy premenopausal Māori, Pacific and European women aged 16-45 years, stratified by body composition profile and ethnicity. Physical activity data were collected using hip-worn accelerometers and Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire. Body composition was assessed using anthropometry, air displacement plethysmography and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Metabolic biomarkers were measured from venous blood samples. Results: Accelerometer wear compliance was 86%, but discomfort (67%) and embarrassment (45%) hindered wear. European women (92.7%) returned more valid data than Māori (82.1%) or Pacific (73.0%, p < 0.04) women. More overweight-obese European (67%) than Māori (49%) or Pacific (32%, p < 0.001) women achieved physical activity guidelines. Achieving guidelines was strongly associated for Māori, inversely with total and regional fat percentages and clustered cardiometabolic risk score (p < 0.01) and positively with body lean percentage (p = 0.21), and for European women inversely with regional fat percentages and positively with body lean percentage (p ≤ 0.036). Substituting sedentary time with moderate-vigorous physical activity predicted improvements (p < 0.05) in total (14.8%) and android (12.5%) fat percentages, BMI (15.3%) and insulin (42.2%) for overweight-obese Māori women, and waist-to-hip ratio (6.4%) among Pacific women. Recreational physical activity preferences varied by ethnicity, possibly due to cultural/ethnic factors. Suggestions to increase physical activity were: family/whanaubased team activities for Māori women; community/church-linked games and fitness sessions for Pacific women; adding variety to existing activities for European women. Conclusions: Ethnicity played a major role in: collecting data; amounts/types of physical activity performed; implications of physical activity on health markers. Tailoring physical activity recommendations for specific ethnic groups could have major positive health implications for New Zealand women.
    Date
    2018
    Author
    O'Brien, Wendy Jean
    Rights
    The Author
    Publisher
    Massey University
    Description
    Appendix 4 (EXPLORE study protocol) is reproduced under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The original article is open access and available at https://springerplus.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40064-015-0916-8
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10179/14867
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