Amy Nagle and Dr. Wayne Johnson, Department of Exercise Sciences

The decline in physical activity and the “obesity epidemic” have created concerns nationwide about the health of American youths. These issues are not only problematic in the social sense (i.e. fostering self-confidence and physical attractiveness), but physical health is important in functional settings, such as classrooms. Core stability, specifically, is essential in maintaining various postures held in the classroom environment. Core stability in this study means balance and strength about the “core” of the body (the abdomen, back, and hips). While America is struggling to find alternatives to promote physically healthy and active lifestyles, physical activity in Ghana, West Africa, is part of everyday life. Young girls in Ghana learn to carry objects on their heads from very early ages. They assist in carrying siblings, who are strapped to their backs by a single piece of cloth. While they do not generally participate in physical education classes or organized sports, the daily physical activities of young girls in Ghana are functional and accomplish tasks. The purpose of this study was to, therefore, eventually educate parents, school teachers, and other caregivers from both Utah, USA, and Wiamoase, Ghana, by informing them of the results to improve core stability and physical activity in their children.
This study focused on the following research questions: How do the types, durations, and intensities of physical activities performed by children in Wiamoase, Ghana, and Utah, USA, differ, and do those differences in physical activities correlate to a significant difference in core stability between the children within those two locations? My hypothesis was that longer durations and greater intensities of certain activities, such as running or playing an organized game like soccer, will result in greater core stability.

Because the target of this study involved middle-school-aged girls, the participants were female students ages 12 to 15. Data was collected from 30 girls in Wiamoase, Ghana, and 30 girls in Utah, USA, for cross-cultural, comparative analysis. The data collection consisted of two major portions, a Previous Day Physical Activity Recall (PDPAR) interview and a series of five different core stability tests. In the PDPAR, the participant reported the activity types, durations, positions, and intensities that she performed the day before the interview. In the Prone-Bridge Test (Figure 1), the Standing Stork Test (Figure 4), and the Side-Bridge Test (Figure 5), the researcher timed how long each girl held the positions. In the Step-Down Test and the Jump-Down Test, the researcher looked for valgus (knock-kneed) and varus (bowlegged) knee positioning.

In the Ghanaian data, a moderate negative correlation existed between the percentage of time spent in sedentary activity and performance on the Prone-Bridge Test and the Side-Bridge Test. The remainder of the correlations within the population samples, including those in the American data, was weak. T-tests were used to determine whether any significant differences exist between the Ghanaian and American population samples for all five assessments. The critical value was 1.699, but all the P-values were less than the critical value. Therefore, the null hypothesis, which was that there is no difference between the populations, can be accepted. In other words, no difference between Ghanaian and American female 12-14 year olds exists in terms of performance on the core stability assessments.

This study was limited by cultural and translational difficulties. Many of the girls in Ghana could not understand the purpose of the core stability assessments because they did not relation to functionality in daily tasks. For example, what is the purpose of standing on one foot if it does not accomplish a functional goal? Additionally, the researcher wanted to deliver the protocol in a certain way, but the Ghanaian translator did not always interpret correctly. Sometimes, the translator would criticize the student for her daily activities reported in the PDPAR, which may have intimidated the girl and skewed the data. Unfortunately, this was a cultural barrier that could not be corrected by the researcher, a newcomer to the Ghanaian culture. More limitations to the study included the subjectivity of the PDPAR interview. Although the literature purported that the interview was a good way to assess daily activities, many of the girls reported only a portion of the day; the average percentage of the day that was unaccounted for was approximately 12% in both the Ghanaian and American samples. Another limitation was that the assessments were only done over one day. If the previous day activities were not routine or the participant did not feel well on the core stability assessment day, unusual data was recorded without regard for the normal schedule for the girl or the girl’s optimal potential on the tests.

This study did not confirm the research hypothesis. However, it opens up a great deal of debate about educational and child-rearing practices. Ghanaian girls reported more hygiene and daily tasks with no organized sports or exercise activities in their PDPARs. Yet, most of the American girls reported some kind of exercise (eg. soccer, volleyball, running) in their PDPARs. If the same core stability can be maintained by functional daily task that require physical activity instead of a specific time to exercise with little physical activity otherwise, how beneficial are the exercises performed by American girls with the singular purpose of exercising? Could Americans learn from Ghanaians in implementing more activities for girls that are multipurpose? This research study can be expanded in so many ways. Female adolescents from other nations can be tested to see how their core stability compares to the existing data. More empirical and measurable methods, such as pedometers and accelerometers, can be used to objectively measure physical activity and core stability. In addition, each test could stand more trials per individual.