Review: Partner Support and Physical Activity among Mexican American Women

Objective: Global recommendations on physical activity for noncommunicable disease prevention can be promoted using partner support strategies among women of Mexican descent and other ethnicities.Design/Methods: This systematic review utilized a multifaceted ecological approach by focusing comprehensively on communi­ty, individual, and social factors influencing physical activity. PubMed, SAGE Publica­tions, EBSCO, ResearchGate, the Cochrane Library and Google Scholar search engines were used to find research on physical activity, with inclusion criteria of Mexi­can American women, aged ≥ 18 years, comprising at least 50% of study population sizes.Main Outcome Measures: An initial search of 232 articles with subsequent searches from reference lists led to selection of a mixture of qualitative (3), mixed methods (3), and intervention (1) studies report­ing partner support for physical activity as perceived by women.Results: Primarily, studies have conceptual­ized physical activity as leisure time activi­ties. Few studies have considered multiple ecological factors in examining influences of physical activity among women. Important­ly, how women perceive support for physi­cal activity received from partners has been shown to influence their levels of activity.Conclusions: Conceptualization of physi­cal activity restricted only to leisure time eliminates other domains that a broader definition of the term encompasses. Future studies are needed to investigate partner support influences on the overall physical activity of Mexican American women within a larger ecological context. Careful attention to partner support for physical activity en­gagement can help ameliorate and prevent chronic diseases both nationally and around the world. Ethn Dis. 2018;28(4):555-560;doi:10.18865/ed.28.4.555.