Abstract B31: Promoting physical activity among cancer survivors
Authors: Treviño-Whitaker Rose A. , Gonzales Delana , Carmona Christina M. , Morris Ruth , Ogden Susan , Ishaque Mariam , Hughes Daniel C. 
Published: October 2015

Background: The nation's war on cancer has resulted in great improvements in cancer survival rates with over 12 million cancer survivors in the U.S today. Physical activity (PA) has been shown to reduce the risk for chronic diseases including: heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis and cancer. The benefits of PA for cancer survivors have been studied but only few survivors are physically active at public health recommended levels. Minority groups are even less active. Therefore promoting PA in minority cancer survivors is an important area of community service.

Purpose: This community service learning (CSL) project focused on the process of implementing an educational yoga therapy program among cancer survivors aimed to increase: 1) knowledge of PA recommendations among cancer survivors, and 2) well-being through a guided yoga activity for participants.

Methods: Participants were recruited from a local non-profit wellness center for women diagnosed with cancer. A total of 4 yoga sessions were conducted. A schedule of classes was provided at the beginning of the program. Participants were contacted bi-weekly via-telephone for yoga session reminders. At the first session, participants received a 25 minute PA educational module and a short demographic, medical history and the health related quality of life Medical Outcomes Short Form (SF-36) Questionnaire. The SF-36 was administered at baseline and post assessments. Descriptive statistics were performed on demographic and SF-36 measures. A paired-sample t-test was used to determine differences at baseline and posttest for the SF-36 scores.

Results: A total of 17 women completed the baseline assessments and 13 women completed the post assessments. The majority of the women who participated in the program were Hispanic or Latina (52.9%), followed by Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (23.5%) and Asian (5.9%). Among the participating women, 41.2% were breast cancer survivors between 60-69 years of age. Majority of the women were 6 months post treatment (47.1%). Though there were no significant changes in the SF-36 aggregate scores of Physical Component Scale (PCS) (pre M= 37.5 SD= 8.2, post M=35.3 SD= 4.9, p = 0.379 ) and Mental Component Scale (pre M= 43.8 SD= 11.4, post M=43.3 SD= 3.5, p = 0.915), SF-36 physical function (PF) subscale significantly improved (pre M= 36.6 SD= 9.2, post M=40.0 SD= 10.8, p = 0.030) and mental health (MH) subscale improved approaching significance (pre M= 53.7 SD= 12.4, post M=57.9 SD= 5.1, p = 0.079).

Discussion: Though the benefits of a physically active lifestyle for cancer survivors are well known, few cancer survivors are active at levels consistent with public health recommendations. Strategies to increase exercise behaviors for cancer survivors in the community setting are needed. Our attempt to implement a CSL exercise program for breast cancer survivors in a community setting resulted in mixed outcomes. Though participants benefited from the exercise in MH and PF subscales of the SF-36, overall aggregate scores and other subscale scores did not improve as expected. However, the PF and MH improvements are consistent with other pilot yoga studies we have done. We also found it challenging to get participants to commit and attend the exercise sessions, especially at post-assessments. However, as expected for those participants that attended, improvements were noted.

Conclusion: Research continues to show there is a need to explore methods to increase PA and exercise behaviors in minority cancer survivor communities. As this was a first effort in establishing exercise in this specific community, several key lessons were learned for this CSL project. Further efforts are needed to explore and address the contributing factors to promoting exercise behaviors in these cancer survivor populations.

Citation Format: Rose A. Treviño-Whitaker, Delana Gonzales, Christina M. Carmona, Ruth Morris, Susan Ogden, Mariam Ishaque, Daniel C. Hughes. Promoting physical activity among cancer survivors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015;24(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B31.