Nursing research on physical activity: a feminist critique

Studies on physical activity have rarely included women as research partici pants, and have been mainly conducted among Western populations. In this pa per, nursing research on women's physical activity is analyzed and critique d using a feminist perspective that respects and values women's own experie nces and their diversities. An extensive literature search was conducted us ing computerized data retrieval systems and 47 empirical studies published in nursing literature were selected and analyzed. The critique is presented with three main themes emerged from the analysis: (a) "without considering women's own experiences"; (b) "implicit androcentric and ethnocentric assu mptions": (c) "without meaningful interactions". Based on the analysis, fut ure directions for nursing research on physical activity are proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.