A pilot study describing physical activity in persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDS) after an exercise program.

Despite the well known mental and physical health benefits of exercise, persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders remain sedentary. While the exercise barriers (i.e., lack of motivation, poor concentration, sedative effects of medication, poverty, and lack of access to exercise education/programs) of persons with SSDs are numerous, lack of motivation is considered foremost among them. Exercise interventions have been shown to improve exercise behavior, but there is a need for longitudinal documentation of physical activity after interventions conclude. This pilot study describes the physical activity level of 22 persons with SSDs 14 to 34 (mean 22) months after the conclusion of an exercise intervention provided in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Eighteen months after the RCT, 22 participants wore pedometers daily for one week without altering their activity. Experimental participants walked more steps and covered more distance on average than control participants on six of the seven days. This pilot study is among the first to document the physical activity level of persons with SSDs after exercise intervention. While our findings confirm the low activity level of persons with SSDs reported by others, experimental participants demonstrated higher activity levels than controls on most days. Future studies should increase the sample size and recruit participants from multiple sites to enhance power and generalizability.

The relationship between daily steps and body composition in postmenopausal women.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between pedometer-determined physical activity (PA) measured in steps per day and adiposity in postmenopausal women. METHODS: Ninety-three women aged 60.9 +/- 5.8 years participated in the study. Relative body fatness was determined by the measurement of height, body mass, percent body fat, trunk fat, and waist and hip circumference. Each subject wore a pedometer for 14 days after testing to measure daily steps. Correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between average steps per day and adiposity variables. Subjects were grouped according to PA tertiles. ANCOVA, with age as the covariate, was used to determine whether adiposity varied across activity groups. RESULTS: Significant inverse associations (p < 0.001) were found between average steps per day and all adiposity variables (r ranging from -0.487 to -0.368). Relationships remained significant after controlling for the influence of age and caloric intake. Also, there was a significant difference in adiposity variables among PA tertiles, with higher values found in the less active groups. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that postmenopausal women who take more daily steps have more favorable adiposity profiles. Additionally, the average body mass index (BMI) of the women in the active category (accumulating an average of 10,023 +/- 240 steps per day) was in the recommended range (24.1 +/- 0.9 kg/m(2)).