Virtual Umra: A Faith-Based Intervention on Steps at School

Background/Purpose Increasing school physical activity (PA) as an adjuvant to regular physical education continues to be a priority; however, results of interventions targeting a variety of school factors prove inconclusive (Dobbins et al., 2009). Thus interventions that target and are tailored to a specific school or student body remain necessary. We therefore implemented a faith-based multidisciplinary curriculum PA intervention with Muslim middle school students.

Method A delayed-multiple baseline across grades ABA design was implemented with 45 students (27 females; M_age=12.3). Pedometers (W4L™MVP Walk 4 Life) were worn during an 8-week intervention, preceded and followed by 2-week baseline and postintervention phases, respectively. Curriculum materials focused on the voluntary pilgrimage of Umra and were patterned after the SPARK Map Challenges Unit.

Analysis/Results Repeated measures factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA with t test post-hoc contrasts revealed that only males increased steps from baseline to intervention, M_{paired difference(pd)}= 871 steps, p=.03, and only on PE days. Males accumulated more steps than females at baseline and this difference grew during intervention (M_pd=1,166 steps_PE; M_pd=509 steps_NoPE). Males increased steps the first 5 days of intervention with peak steps occurring on day 7 while females' steps were lower than at baseline and trended downward over the intervention. No differences were noted for BMI classification. Only 7^th graders increased steps (M_pd=817 steps_NoPE, p=.009).

Conclusions Virtual Umra had a limited-duration positive impact on steps for males and 7^th graders. Full integration by school personnel, modeling PA by the all-female staff, and increasing PA during girls' PE classes may boost and expand the intervention's impact.