Contact: Ellen Bank
843.792.2626
Margaret Lamb (USC)
803-777-5400
Dec. 6, 2002
A faith-based physical activity initiative for the 276,000 members
of South Carolina’s AME churches will be announced Friday at a statewide
meeting of pastors and church members at Allen University in Columbia.
The project is a joint effort of the AME churches of South Carolina,
the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and the University of
South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health in Columbia. It is funded by a
three-year $1.26 million grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
MUSC and USC faculty and staff will describe the program to
church members on Friday and demonstrate some of the physical activities that
are part of the program. Included in the demonstration will be chair exercises,
a method of enabling the elderly and disabled to participate in physical activity,
and praise aerobics, exercise aerobics done to gospel music.
MUSC president Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., an epidemiologist with a particular
interest in health disparities will deliver the welcoming address to the group.
The MUSC and USC organizers will ask for a volunteer from each
church to coordinate the effort for members of that church. The volunteers will
attend an all-day training program to learn to implement physical activity programs
in his or her congregation. Programs include praise aerobics, chair exercises,
walking clubs and the use of step counters to keep track of daily walking exercise.
In addition, each volunteer will implement and an eight-week course, “8
Steps to Fitness,” in his or her congregation. These efforts will be supplemented
by information provided by the Health-E-AME website. This website provides health
information and culturally relevant risk reduction activities.
“There is no doubt that physical activity plays a critical
role in preventing obesity and provides significant health benefits,”
said Marilyn Laken, Ph.D., principal investigator for the project and director
of special initiatives at MUSC. “Fifty-five percent of African American
women and 44 percent of men report little or no physical activity, and some
66 percent are
considered overweight by national standards. Our goal is to change these statistics
for AME Church members and thereby positively affect two of the major health
disparities affecting African Americans disproportionately – cardiovascular
disease and diabetes.”
Laken said that a planning committee of AME members and university
representatives developed this program after evaluating numerous physical activity
programs. Many other programs have not targeted African American, and those
that did were generally focused on small populations. Also demonstration projects
often cease when funding for the program ends. The approach of the AME/MUSC/USC
program is culturally specific and builds sustainable local capacity reaching
both urban and rural South Carolina African Americans. “We feel that the
tie to the churches’ social support network will go a long way to making
these efforts acceptable to participants and sustainable,” said Laken.
"We are very excited about the opportunity for USC’s
Arnold School of Public Health and MUSC to work together with the AME churches
of South Carolina to increase physical activity among South Carolina citizens,"
said Sara Wilcox, Ph.D., an assistant professor at USC’s Arnold School
of Public Health and co-principal investigator on the project.
"A major national health goal is to eliminate racial disparities
in health outcomes, and we know that physical activity plays such a critical
role in these efforts. Also, churches are a particularly useful setting to reach
a diverse population of African Americans across the state," Wilcox said.
"USC will draw on its expertise in physical activity programming and measurement
to develop the physical activity program and evaluate its effectiveness, based
on substantial involvement and input from the AME churches."
South Carolina church officials are actively encouraging participation
in the program. “The faith-based physical activity program has the potential
to literally save lives if we embrace and use the program,” said Dr. Allen
W. Parrott, director, special projects of the South Carolina AME Church. “Our
body is our temple, our unique gift from God. Every individual member, every
congregation must fervently pray and work toward a healthier lifestyle.”
Bishop Henry Allen Belin Jr., presiding bishop of the AME Church
in South Carolina, said that the program is a step in the right direction in
eliminating the health disparities that exist in South Carolina. “I urge
and encourage every congregation to adopt and use this program,” he said.
Potentially 276,000 members of AME churches in almost all of
South Carolina’s 46 counties can participate in the project. If the approach
is successful in South Carolina, it will be expanded and has the potential of
reaching more than two million AME members nationwide.
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