Attitudes toward physical activity of white midlife women.

OBJECTIVE

To explore attitudes toward physical activity of White midlife women in the United States using a feminist perspective.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional qualitative study using a thematic analysis.

SETTING

Internet communities for midlife women.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty-nine White midlife women in the United States recruited using a convenience sampling method.

METHODS

We used 17 topics on attitudes toward physical activity and ethnic-specific contexts to administer an online forum. We analyzed the data using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

We found three themes: thinking without action, gendered and sedentary culture, and motivating myself. The women knew and understood the necessity of physical activity for their physical and mental health but in most cases had not been able to take action to increase their physical activities. Although the culture that circumscribed the women's physical activity was sedentary in nature, the women tried to motivate themselves to increase their physical activities through several creative strategies.

CONCLUSION

The findings strongly suggest that although women were doing their best, American culture itself needs to be changed to help women increase physical activity in their daily lives.