As the number of cancer survivors grows and expected survival time increases, the health behaviors of this population are gaining significant attention from the research and public health community. Adoption or maintenance of healthy lifestyles after cancer has the potential to reduce both cancer- and non-cancer-related morbidity and mortality. Exercise adoption and maintenance remains a significant challenge for adults, especially clinical populations such as cancer survivors who may struggle with comorbidities, symptoms and side-effects of the disease or medications, and overall compromised health and functioning. A number of site-based exercise interventions have been conducted to promote physical activity, often using a theoretical basis to design and execute the intervention. Although these programs are successful in exposing cancer survivors to regular physical activity, they often struggle with exercise maintenance after the conclusion of the structured site-based group exercise sessions. The goal of the proposed project is to enhance physical activity engagement among adult cancer survivors by designing a home-based program using the socio-ecological framework and employing constructs from social cognitive theory to guide participants through the project.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
29
12 week home-based program consisting of: weekly Zoom group chats; exercise videos; free exercise equipment and pedometer; an exercise manual with worksheets to promote increased physical activity; access to a unique group social media page
12 week home-based program consisting of: weekly check-in phone calls; exercise videos; free exercise equipment and pedometer; an exercise manual with worksheets to promote increased physical activity; access to a unique group social media page.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois, United States
Feasibility of Zoom-Based Exercise Coaching
Participants in the intervention arm will answer Likert-format questions relating to their preference, tolerance and usage of the Zoom-based group meetings to promote physical activity levels. The scale will use a 1-5 rating, with 1 being lowest preference/displeased and 10 being the highest preference/very pleased.
Time frame: 12 weeks
Change in average daily step count
Participants will wear a hip-based pedometer for 7 days at baseline, 12 weeks and 24 weeks.
Time frame: Baseline, 12 weeks, 24 weeks
Change in minutes of daily sedentary time
The Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire (developed by Rosenberg et al., 2010) will be administered at baseline,12 weeks and 24 weeks to assess participants' time spent sitting. Questions relating to sedentary behavior cover both weekday and weekend sitting time, as well as domain-specific sedentary behaviors (i.e. occupational, transportation, and leisure sitting time).Response options for the amount of time engaged in each behavior include: none, 15 minutes or less, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, or 6 hours or more. For scoring, the time spent in each behavior is converted into hours, and the hours per day for each item are summed separately for weekdays and weekend days. Higher scores indicate higher amounts of daily sitting time.
Time frame: Baseline, 12 weeks, 24 weeks
Use of the exercise manual
Participants in both groups will answer Likert-format questions relating to their preference, usage and perceived helpfulness of the study-specific exercise manual. The scale will use a 1-10 rating, with 1 being lowest preference/displeased and 10 being the highest preference/very pleased.
Time frame: 12 weeks
Change in physical activity engagement
The Godin-Shepard Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire will be administered at baseline, 12 weeks and 24 weeks to assess individuals' reported weekly frequency of engaging in light, moderate and strenuous vigorous-intensity exercise. For each intensity level, participants will report the number of times per week they engaged in an exercise bout \>=10 minutes and the average duration of the bouts. For each intensity level, the number of bouts per week will be multiplied by the average duration per bout to reflect participant's average activity level.
Time frame: Baseline,12 weeks, 24 weeks
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