Health of Sedentary Women and Home Exercise: For Increased Adherence

Background: Home-based walking, the easiest physical activity, is considered one of the habits in daily life that contribute to the people’s wellbeing and have been adopted in a number of exercise programs. Methods: Studies conducted between 1996 and 2017 were identified in a search of electronic databases, which include MEDLINE and CINAHL. Selected keywords were ‘home-based walking’, ‘women’, ‘pregnancy’ and ‘mood’. Results and discussion: A search using the keyword of home-based walking found 150 papers from 1996 to 2017, which is reduced to less than 1/3 or 43 papers when the search is limited to women. Surveys of walking in the 2000s were conducted taking account of environmental factors for improvement of women’s physical and mental health. To improve the adherence to home-based walking, ensure that the walking environment is properly managed. In place of walking, stretching is proposed for pregnant women in advanced stages when it becomes difficult to continue walking. Rather than walking that is affected by external environmental factors, stretching is considered to be more recommendable as a home exercise, although further examination is necessary to review whether stretching is equally effective for improving mental health and reduce discomfort.