Implementation of a Community-Based Mind-Body (Tae-Bo) Physical Activity Programme on Health-Related Physical Fitness in Rural Black Overweight and Obese Women with Manifest Risk Factors for Multimorbidity.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, particularly impacting low- and middle-income countries and rural dwellers. Therefore, this programme aimed to investigate if a community-based mind-body PA programme implemented in a low-resource setting could improve health-related physical fitness outcomes. Black overweight or obese adult women (25 ± 4.7 years) with a body mass index (BMI) > 25 kg·m recruited from a rural settlement in South Africa with manifest risk factors for multimorbidity were assigned to a 10-week waiting-to-treat non-exercising control group ( = 65) or a community-based mind-body programme ( = 60) consisting of 45-60 min, thrice-weekly Tae-Bo. The intervention resulted in significant ( ≤ 0.05) improvements in body weight ( = 0.043), BMI ( = 0.037), and waist ( = 0.031) and hip circumferences ( = 0.040). Flexibility was found to be significantly increased at mid- and post-programme ( = 0.033 and = 0.025, respectively) as was static balance (mid: = 0.022; post: = 0.019), hand grip strength (mid: = 0.034; post: = 0.029), sit-up performance (mid: = 0.021; post: = 0.018), and cardiorespiratory endurance (mid: = 0.017; post: = 0.011). No significant change was found in sum of skinfolds following the programme ( = 0.057). Such a community-based mind-body programme presents an opportunity to level health inequalities and positively improve health-related physical fitness in low-resource communities irrespective of the underlying barriers to participation.