Physical Activity and Cancer Care in the Atlantic Canadian Provinces: an Examination of Provider Beliefs, Practices, Res
- PDF / 286,585 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 91 Downloads / 138 Views
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Physical Activity and Cancer Care in the Atlantic Canadian Provinces: an Examination of Provider Beliefs, Practices, Resources, Barriers, and Enablers Kelsey M. Shea 1 & Robin Urquhart 2 & Melanie R. Keats 3
# American Association for Cancer Education 2019
Abstract Despite the well-established benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors, the vast majority of survivors are not sufficiently active to reap these benefits. While cancer-specific physical activity guidelines exist, it remains unclear whether there are sufficient resources to support these recommendations. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the available cancer-specific physical activity programs for cancer survivors in Atlantic Canada and explore barriers and enablers to program implementation. Interviews were conducted with a purposefully selected sample of oncology healthcare professionals, administrators, and cancer-specific physical activity program leaders to examine the attitudes and practices of key stakeholders with respect to physical activity and cancer-specific programming. Thirty participants, including 7 oncologists, 7 nurses, 6 allied healthcare professionals, 5 administrators, and 5 program leaders, completed an interview. Three over-arching themes emerged, including (1) knowledge, attitudes and need for physical activity; (2) implementation barriers; and (3) implementation enablers. The results of this study suggest that cancer survivors in Atlantic Canada may require additional resources and support with respect to physical activity throughout their cancer care journey. Keywords Physical activity . Exercise . Cancer survivor . Barriers . Enablers . Resources
As many as 60% of those diagnosed with cancer will become long-term cancer survivors [1]. Despite increasing survival rates, a cancer diagnosis can have a profound impact on a survivor’s overall health and well-being. In addition to experiencing late and long-term effects from treatment, many cancer survivors are at an increased risk of co-morbidities, recurrent disease, and secondary cancers [2]. Physical activity (PA) is a non-pharmacological intervention associated with multiple, well-established health benefits, including weight management, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and endurance [3]. PA also plays a key role in the primary and secondary prevention of chronic disease and premature death [4, 5]. Importantly, PA has also been shown
* Melanie R. Keats [email protected] 1
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
2
Department of Surgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
3
School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, 6230 South Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
to be a safe and effective means to help mitigate many of the physiological (e.g., fatigue), psychological (e.g., depression), and social (e.g., feelings of isolation) side-effects associated with a cancer diagnosis and the resulting treatments, making it an important area of study in cancer surviv
Data Loading...
