Abstract A69: The feasibility of delivering a home-based motivational exercise program to African American breast cancer survivors
Authors: Spector Denise 
Published: May 2015

Objective: Most African-American breast cancer survivors do not meet current exercise recommendations for cancer survivors of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on five or more days/week. Breast cancer survivors who are physically active often have better physical function and health-related quality of life outcomes compared to those who are inactive. The present study addresses a gap in the area of exercise oncology research by focusing on African-American breast cancer survivors who are known to have worse clinical outcomes than their White counterparts. Our goal was to test the feasibility of delivering a home-based exercise intervention to African-American breast cancer survivors, as well as the impact on physical activity levels.

Methods: Sedentary (i.e., exercise &lt; 60 min/week) African American women aged ≥ 18 who completed primary treatments within the prior two years for Stage 0-IIIA breast cancer were recruited for a 16-week motivational home-based progressive aerobic and resistance training exercise pilot study. A baseline visit was required for data collection and proper instruction on the exercise program. Subjective physical activity data were collected using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and objective data were obtained through Actical accelerometry. Motivational interviewing was utilized to determine goals and explore exercise facilitators/barriers. Participants completed weekly exercise logs and received weekly phone calls. Culturally appropriate, individually tailored monthly exercise-related newsletters were mailed during the 4-month intervention. To assess feasibility, descriptive statistics were conducted to assess attrition rate, adherence to weekly exercise goals, compliance with weekly phone calls, and completion of weekly logs. A change in physical activity levels, as measured by the change in IPAQ scores from baseline to 4 months, was calculated, and a Wilcoxon Sign test was used to test for significance.

Results: 17 women enrolled; 13 completed the intervention (76%). Participants had moderately-high adherence (70%) to walking goals, but only 51% for resistance training goals. Most women were compliant with the 15 weekly telephone calls (M = 14). High satisfaction rates were reported. All women reported that they would continue walking for exercise, while only nine indicated they would do resistance training. There was a significant increase in minutes of weekly exercise post-intervention (M = 271, p = 0.001) compared to baseline (M = 60.8). Subjective and objective physical activity data correlated highly.

Conclusions: The intervention was feasible, safe and led to increased physical activity. However, study modifications to improve recruitment and adherence in future mixed modality exercise interventions are recommended.

Citation Format: Denise Spector. The feasibility of delivering a home-based motivational exercise program to African American breast cancer survivors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A69. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A69