BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - It's fitness boot camp for a group of journalists attending the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention. Nefertiti Durant, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and a researcher with UAB's Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHRC), will introduce her healthy lifestyle program, Be Fit Be Well, to 25 journalists Aug. 6 at the group's national meeting in Tampa.
The journalists will participate in a 20-minute Be Fit Be Well boot camp. Be Fit Be Well uses simple but dynamic interactive techniques to help individuals and communities to jumpstart their journey to healthier lifestyles. Participants will learn the program's techniques and receive helpful tools such as yoga mats, thera-bands and pedometers. The journalists will continue to practice these techniques and report their progress during the next three to six months via interactive Web-based technology. Through a chronicle of their personal experience with Be Fit Be Well, participants will educate and provide encouragement to their own communities about the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle.
"The overall goal of Be Fit Be Well is to arm individuals and communities with knowledge, combined with low-cost, high-impact techniques that can be used to develop and sustain healthy lifestyles," said Durant, who also will participate in a health and fitness panel at the journalist's convention. The meeting is the premier event for black media professionals, drawing more than 3,000 attendees each year.
"Programs such as Be Fit Be Well are essential because the health of racial and ethnic minorities and low-income people in the United States is worse than the health of the overall population," said Mona Fouad, M.D., director of the UAB MHRC. "National concerns for these differences, termed health disparities, and the associated excess in death and disease burden have been expressed as a high priority on national health-status reviews and ranked No. 3 by the National Institutes of Health among its top five research priorities."
Durant created Be Fit Be Well as an outreach program to provide residents of communities plagued by high rates of obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease with healthy lifestyle tools that are easily taught, adopted and disseminated.
Be Fit Be Well has two components, physical activity and nutrition. Basic elements of nutrition are taught using interactive Web technology and taste testing to introduce healthy foods. The physical activity component, created in collaboration with Olivia Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the UAB School of Public Health, is learned through the boot camp of cardiovascular exercise techniques, strength training and yoga. It can be done in 20 minutes at home, in recreation centers, in churches or other community locales with limited equipment and resources.
About the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center
The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center is a comprehensive educational, research and community outreach center focused on eliminating the health disparities of racial/ethnic minorities.