The impact of a gender-specific physical activity intervention on the fitness and fatness profile of men in Ireland

Background: Amid increasing concerns about rising obesity rates and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, physical activity (PA) is seen as a prophylactic to many chronic conditions affecting men. Men respond best to community-based PA programmes, using gender-specific promotional and delivery strategies. ‘Men on the Move’ (MOM) was developed on this basis and targeted inactive adult men in Ireland.

Methods: Sedentary men (n=927; age=50.7±10.9yr; Weight=92.7±16.0kg; METS=6.06±2.13) were recruited across 8 counties; 4 ‘intervention group’ (IG; n=501), and 4 ‘comparison-in-waiting group’ (CG; n=426). The MOM programme involved structured group exercise twice weekly for 12 weeks, along with health-related workshops with the groups maintained up to 52W. Primary outcome measures (aerobic fitness, bodyweight and waist circumference (WC)) together with self-administered questionnaires were used to gather participant data at baseline, 12, 26 and 52 weeks (W).

Results: Results show a net positive effect on aerobic fitness, bodyweight and WC, with significant (p<0.05) net change scores observed in the IG compared to the CG (METS: 12W=+2.20, 26W=+1.89, 52W=+0.92; Weight: 12W=-1.72kg, 26W=-1.95kg, 52W=-1.89kg; WC: 12W=-4.54cm, 26W=-2.69cm, 52W=-3.16cm). The corresponding reduction in cardiovascular disease risk is particularly significant in the context of a previously inactive and overweight cohort. The high ‘dropout’ (42.7% presenting at 52W) however, is of particular concern, with ‘dropouts’ having lower levels of aerobic fitness and higher bodyweight/WC at baseline.

Conclusions: Notwithstanding dropout issues, findings address an important gap in public health practice by informing the translational scale-up of a small controllable gender-specific PA intervention, MOM, to a national population based PA intervention targeting inactive men.