Rehab Centers: Cancer Survivors’ Exercise Barriers, Facilitators and Preferences in the Context of Fatigue, Quality of Life and Physical Activity Participation: A Questionnaire-Survey.

Cancer survivors’ exercise barriers, facilitators and preferences in the context of fatigue, quality of life and physical activity participation: a questionnaire-survey.

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Psychooncology. 2013 Jan; 22(1): 186-94
Blaney JM, Lowe-Strong A, Rankin-Watt J, Campbell A, Gracey JH

To investigate the exercise barriers, facilitators and preferences of a mixed sample of cancer survivors as well as fatigue levels, quality of life (QoL) and the frequency and intensity of exercise that cancer survivors typically engage in.An anonymous, postal questionnaire-survey with a convenience sample of 975 cancer survivors was used. Standardised measures were used to establish fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form), QoL (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30), exercise frequency and intensity (Leisure Score Index).A 52.3% response rate (n?=?456) was achieved. A total of 76.0% were female, with stage I (18.3%) or stage II (21.0%) breast cancer (64.4%), and 62.3% were ?3?years post treatment. A total of 73.5% reported fatigue with 57.2% experiencing fatigue on a daily basis. A total of 68.1% had never been given any advice on how to manage fatigue. A total of 9.4% reported to engage in strenuous physical activity, 43.5% in moderate physical activity and 65.5% in mild physical activity. Respondents experienced difficulties with emotional, cognitive and social functioning and the symptoms of fatigue, insomnia and pain. Barriers that interfered with exercise ‘often/very often’ were mainly related to respondents’ health and environmental factors. A total of 50.2% were interested in exercise and 52.5% felt able to exercise. Exercise facilitators, preferences and motivators provide some insight into cancer survivors’ needs in terms of becoming more physically active.Although cancer survivors continue to experience fatigue and QoL issues long after treatment completion, over half are willing and feel able to participate in exercise. Exercise barriers were mainly health related or environmental issues, however, the main barriers reported were those that had the potential to be alleviated by exercise. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Selected abstracts from recent publications in cardiopulmonary disease prevention and rehabilitation.

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J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev. 2013 Jan; 33(1): 53-6
Kalra S, Roitman JL

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Prospective evaluation of the nature, course, and impact of acute sleep abnormality following TBI.

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Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2013 Jan 4;
Nakase-Richardson R, Sherer M, Barnett SD, Yablon SA, Evans CC, Kretzmer T, Schwartz DJ, Modarres M

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively characterize the prevalence, course, and impact of acute sleep abnormality among traumatic brain injury (TBI) neurorehabilitation admissions. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. Setting: Free-standing rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Primarily severe TBI (Median emergency department GCS=7; N=205) who were mostly male (71%), and Caucasian (68%) evaluated during acute neurorehabilitation. INTERVENTIONS: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98 (DelRS-R98) was administered weekly throughout rehabilitation hospitalization. DelRS-R98 Item 1 was used to classify severity of sleep-wake cycle disturbance (SWCD) as none, mild, moderate, and severe. SWCD ratings were analyzed both serially and at one-month post-injury. RESULTS: For entire sample, 66% (mild-severe) had SWCD at one-month post injury. Course of SWCD using a subset (N=152) revealed 84% having SWCD on rehabilitation admission with 63% having moderate to severe ratings (median 24 days post injury; DPI). By the third serial exam (Median 35 DPI), 59% remained with SWCD and 28% having moderate to severe ratings. Using General Linear Modeling and adjusting for age, ED-GCS, and DPI, presence of moderate to severe SWCD at one-month post injury made significant contributions in predicting duration of post-traumatic amnesia (p < .01) and rehabilitation hospital length of stay (p < .01). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that sleep abnormalities after TBI are prevalent and decrease over time. However, a high percent remain with SWCD throughout the course of rehabilitation intervention. Given the brevity of inpatient neurorehabilitation, future studies may explore targeting SWCD to improve early outcomes such as cognitive functioning and economic impact following TBI. HubMed – rehab

 

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