PURPOSE: This study was done to determine the effects of walking exercise training(WET) on metabolic syndrome risk factors and body composition in obese middle school girls. METHOD: A non-equivalent pretest-posttest experimental design was used. Twenty seven subjects participated in this study from one women's middle school in Busan. The participants were purposely allocated to an experimental group (n=14) and a control group (n=13). The experimental group participated in 30-60 minutes of WET with 55 to 75% of a maximal heart rate six days a week for 12 weeks. RESULTS: The prevalence of individual risk factors on metabolic syndrome were improved in the experimental group after the intervention. The high waist circumference(WC), high triglyceride(TG), low high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), high blood pressure(BP) and high fasting glucose(FG) were 21.4, 21.4, 14.3, 28.6 and 7.2%, respectively. There were significant differences in WC (F=22.24, p<.001), TG (F=5.34, p=0.30), body weight(F=21.99, p<.001), fat mass(F=19.17, p<.001), and % body fat(F=17.93, p<.001) between the experimental and control group after the intervention. However, there were no significant differences in HDL-C, FG and BP between the experimental and control group after the intervention. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that WET is effective in decreasing risk factors of the metabolic syndrome and body composition components in obese middle school girls. These findings suggest that WET can be useful as a nursing intervention in the prevention of obesity-related disorders in obese adolescents.
*Walking ; Risk Factors ; Obesity/*rehabilitation ; Metabolic Syndrome X/*blood/prevention & control ; Lipids/blood ; Humans ; Female ; *Exercise ; *Body Composition ; Blood Pressure ; Blood Glucose/analysis ; Adolescent

PURPOSE: The population of metabolic syndrome is increasing in Korea. The prevalence is related to lifestyle, such as lack of physical activity and irregular diet. Most patients with metabolic syndrome know that lifestyle intervention is important to managing the condition. However, they do not always follow the intervention for various reasons, including lack of knowledge on how to change their lifestyle and lack of accessibility to that knowledge. The purpose of this study was to test the web-based health promotion program we developed. METHODS: Fifty-six adult workers from eight areas of business were recruited. They all had a confirmed metabolic syndrome diagnosis after being registered at a university hospital for annual health checkups. Twenty-nine workers were assigned to the experimental group, and the others were assigned to the control group. The web-based program was applied to the experimental group as an intervention for 8 weeks.Waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and blood pressure were measured before and after the program. Data were analyzed using chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and t test. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in waist circumference and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (t = -4.43, p < .001; t = 2.22, p = .031, respectively). Of the 29 participants, 13 (44.83%) in the intervention group had less than two indices for metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that a web-based program is useful for patients with metabolic syndrome to improve physiologic parameters related to metabolic syndrome. The web-based program may be easily applicable to community as well as clinical setting.
Adult ; Blood Glucose/metabolism ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Health Promotion/*methods/standards ; Humans ; *Internet ; *Life Style ; Lipoproteins, HDL/blood ; Male ; Metabolic Syndrome X/*rehabilitation ; Middle Aged ; Triglycerides/blood ; Waist Circumference ; Young Adult