Community-wide program gets residents exercising

NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) A program designed to boost physical activity levels in a low-income, multi-ethnic community did just that, and led to real health benefits for residents.

Compared with a ''control'' community, fewer participants in the get-fit community gained weight and many lost weight, reducing their risk of type 2 diabetes -- which largely results from obesity.

Residents in the intervention community also saw improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Dr Anne Karen Jenum, at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, and colleagues tested their program over three years in a low-income, urban district in Norway with high rates of heart disease, obesity and physical inactivity.

The program involved local political and lay leaders and health and welfare workers in the planning and implementation of an ''orchestrated set of strategies'' to increase physical activity.

For example, organized walks were planned and promoted; leaflets and other reminders about the health benefits of physical activity such as using stairs were distributed; and free diet, nutrition, and smoking cessation counseling was offered.

''We observed a net increase in physical activity of 9 per cent,'' Jenum's group reports in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

The net proportion of individuals who gained weight was reduced by 50 percent. ''Although there was an increase in mean body mass in both districts, the increase in the intervention district was only half of that seen in the control district,'' the team explains.

''Small but significant'' positive changes were seen in lipid levels and smoking habits, and, in men, blood sugar levels.

By reducing inactivity, the community program ''led to significant health effects on risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,'' Jenum and her colleagues conclude.

Low-cost community-based strategies that get people moving could help stem the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes, they say.

REUTERS SB VA VV0911