Monthly Spotlight
Lyndsey Hornbuckle
Describe your project:
Cardiometabolic diseases have been shown to affect Black men and women at higher rates than other groups in the U.S. Physical activity can reduce the risk for these diseases, but few studies have looked at how Black adults can get enough activity to benefit their health. These studies are necessary because Black Americans are at higher risk for obesity, high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and physical inactivity. Having a family member or friend who cares about health can help individuals exercise more, which can also help prevent cardiometabolic diseases. The benefits of having a supporter may be even stronger when individuals work together as a team. Our research compares the benefits of exercising with someone versus exercising alone in Black adults 40-80 years of age. In our previous pilot work, participants were partnered with a spouse or romantic partner. Moving forward, we are expanding our work to include partners chosen by the participants who they consider significant in their lives such as a spouse, family member, or close friend. The study goal is to see if there are differences in how exercising together or alone affects risk for cardiometabolic diseases, how well partners take care of each other, how receptive partners are to each others care, and how much exercise they do during and after the program. Our research team worked with a carefully-selected community advisory board for 7 years to plan and complete the pilot version of this work, so it has been shown to be feasible and acceptable by the community. We are now working on plans to extend this work to a larger group to help more clearly understand how partners affect exercise.
What’s your why?
I have always had an interest in working with underrepresented communities, in general, because I want to play a role in developing solutions for health disparities. My work aims to innovatively and efficiently addresses a social factor that could impact an incredibly modifiable and influential behavior (i.e., exercise). Exercise has long been shown to “move the needle” in terms of reducing risk for obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and common related co-morbidities…yet many of us still are not acquiring enough of it. As aging Black adults experience health disparities on multiple levels (cardiometabolic disease-related death and risk, obesity, physical inactivity), our work’s focus on dyads within this group is timely as Baby Boomers are in poorer cardiometabolic health states than were previous cohorts. A key issue addressed in our work is how to make exercise sustainable in this population by leveraging a person already in an individual’s life to improve morbidity, mortality, and quality of life.
Important lesson learned for people who are doing this work.
Be authentic and be patient. This work takes time but it completely worth the connection you build with the communities about which you are already passionate!
Impact made on UT and the community.
By intervening on a health behavior (i.e., exercise) that is critically influential on cardiometabolic health AND employing a strategy to study interdisciplinary factors that facilitate the maintenance of the behavior, our work offers a way to reduce the progression from risk to active cardiometabolic disease. In summary, this work could positively affect BOTH partners to more efficiently address and reduce cardiometabolic and physical inactivity disparities. We ultimately want to see Black families thrive!