• Philippe Jean-Luc Gradidge and Precious Nkhensani Golele.
• Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Afr Health Sci. 2018 Dec 1; 18 (4): 917921917-921.

BackgroundIn the context of a growing obesity pandemic in sub-Saharan African countries little is known on how to address the problem /disease in the region.MethodsA randomised controlled trial of walking to decrease obesity was conducted using 115 women employed at the University of Venda, Limpopo province. 49 of these participants were randomly selected into an intervention group, which walked for 30 minutes, 3 days per week for a period of 12 weeks on treadmills located in the university gym. The control group were instructed to continue with usual activities. Baseline and follow-up body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), body size discrepancy (measured by a feel-minus-ideal (FID) index), and physical activity were collected on all participants.ResultsThe absolute changes in BMI, waist, systolic and diastolic BP in the intervention group was -0.80, -1.50, -4.02 and -2.37, respectively. In contrast, the absolute changes for these were +1.05, +1.73, +4.64 and +4.94, respectively in the control group. The results of the FID analysis showed that most had a desire for thinness.ConclusionOur data demonstrates that positive changes in BMI, waist, and BP were observed in the intervention group, indicating the potential scalability of the intervention.

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