Abstract:
Health-promoting activities are undertaken by some orthodox churches in the Ibadan
metropolis, including the Baptist Church, which has a Department dedicated to the
healthcare of its members, particularly the elderly. Research has shown that elderly
people experience physiological decline in terms of cardiovascular parameters, body
composition, and functional ability, making exercise crucial to mitigating the burden
of age-related illness. Previous studies focused largely on conventional exercise, with
little attention paid to Aerobic Dance (AD) and Pedometer-based Walk (PBW). This
study, therefore, determined the effects of AD and PBW on the Cardiovascular
Parameters –CP [Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and
Mean Arterial Blood Pressure (MABP), Body Composition –BC [Fat Mass (FM), FatFree Mass (FFM), Body Mass Index (BMI)] and Functional Ability –FA [Chair SitReach (CSR), Arm Curl (AC) and Chair Sit and Stand (CSS)] of Baptist elderly
women in the Ibadan metropolis. The moderating effect of of elderliness was also
examined.
The study was anchored to the Programmed Theory of Ageing, while pretest-posttest
control group quasi-experimental design with a 3x2 factorial matrix was adopted. The
simple random sampling technique was used to select three out of the 25 associations
in Ibadan Baptist Conference. Simple random sampling was adopted to select a church
from each of the selected associations. Seventy elderly women of age 55 years and
above were purposively selected from the sampled churches. Treatment lasted for 12
weeks. Data were analysed using multivariate analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of
significance.
The participants’ age was 61.33±5.88 years. Treatment had a significant main effect on
cardiovascular parameters. On MABP (F(2; 64) = 5.36, η2 =.16), the participants exposed
to PBW had the lowest mean score (88.268); on SBP (F(2; 64) = 7.22, η2=.20), the
participants exposed to PBW had the lowest mean score (122.41); and on DBP (F(2; 64)
= 3.59, η2=.11), the participants exposed to PBW had the lowest mean (71.54). The
treatment was significant on two of the body composition parameters - FM (F(2; 64) =
19.77, η2=.41). The participants exposed to AD had the lowest mean score (28.85) and
BMI (F(2; 64) = 23.06, η2=.45). The participants exposed to AD had the lowest mean
score (26.71). The treatment was also significant on functional ability parameters. On
CSR (F(2; 64) =16.98, η2=.37), the participants exposed to AD had the highest mean
score (4.85); on CSS (F(2; 64) = 43.79, η2=.602), the participants exposed to AD had the
highest mean score (20.72); and on AC (F(2; 64) = 25.30, η2=.47), the participants
exposed to AD had the highest mean score (29.04). Stage of elderliness had a
significant main effect only on AC (F(1; 65) = 3.97, η2=.06). The two-way interaction
effects of treatment and stage of elderliness were not significant.
Aerobic dance and pedometer-based walk improved the cardiovascular parameters,
body composition, and functional ability among the Baptist elderly women in the
Ibadan metropolis. Therefore, aerobic dance and pedometer-based walk should be
adopted to mitigate the burden of age-related illness of Baptist elderly women.
