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Alfa Muhihi, Marina Njelekela, Rose Mpembeni, Zablon Masesa, Kazuya Kitamori, Mari Mori, Norihiro Kato, Jacob Mtabaji, Yukio Yamori. Physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk factors among young and middle-aged men in urban Mwanza, Tanzania. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2012;11:11 Key words: Urbanization, Nutrition transition, Physical activity energy expenditure, Occupation intensity, Tanzania Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/11/11/full Received: 21/02/2011 - Accepted: 27/11/2011 - Published: 20/01/2012 © Alfa Muhihi et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk factors among young and middle-aged men in urban Mwanza, Tanzania
Alfa Muhihi1,&, Marina Njelekela2, Rose Mpembeni3, Zablon Masesa4, Kazuya Kitamori5, Mari Mori6, Norihiro Kato7, Jacob Mtabaji4, Yukio Yamori6
1Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States, 2Department of Physiology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 3Department of Physiology, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences - Bugando, Mwanza, Tanzania, 4Department of Food and Nutritional Environment, Human Life and Environment, Kinjo Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan, 5Institute for World Health Development, Mukogawa Women’s University, Nishinomiya, Japan, 6Department of Gene Diagnostics and Therapeutic Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
&Corresponding author
Alfa Muhihi, Harvard School of Public Health, Mail Box 846, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors are increasing at an unprecedented rate in developing countries. However, fewer studies have evaluated the role of physical activity in preventing CVD in these countries. We assessed level physical activity and its relationship with CVD risk factors among young and middle aged men in a fast growing city of Mwanza in Tanzania.
Physical activity was assessed among 97 healthy men aged 20-50years using Sub-Saharan Africa Activity Questionnaire. An updated compendium of physical activity was used to code the metabolic equivalent. Energy expenditure was calculated using Harris Benedict equation. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum lipids were also measured.
The mean energy expenditure in this population was 6,466 ± 252 kcal/week. More than half (53.6%) of the participants had energy expenditure of ≥4,000 kcal/week. Only three (3.1%) had energy expenditure below the recommended 1,000 kcal/week. Except for hypertension, prevalence of CVD risk factors was low in this population; hypertension 23.7%, low HDL-cholesterol 10.3%, high LDL-cholesterol 9.3% and obesity 4.1%. Physical activity energy expenditure had an inversely relationship with waist to hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and fasting blood glucose.
Physical activity energy expenditure was high in this population and was inversely correlated with CVD risk factors. Physical activity may play an important role in the prevention of CVD in this urban population of young and middle aged men.
