Date Available

7-27-2017

Year of Publication

2017

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Advisor

Dr. Jody Clasey

Abstract

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America. It’s been suggested that regular physical activity (PA) can improve health outcomes in cancer survivors. An estimate from BRFSS data (2009) suggested that 47% of all cancer survivors met recommended guidelines and that this estimate was not different from the population at large (48%). Several factors were examined from these BRFSS data to determine whether subgroups of survivors existed who might benefit from interventions aimed at improving their PA status. The purpose of this investigation was to obtain more recent estimates of adherence to established PA guidelines for cancer survivors. Data from 2015 NHIS were obtained from the CDC website. Of the survivors, 40% met PA guidelines. Additionally, 79% were 54 years or older, more likely to be female (60%), predominantly white (80%), with more than 2 comorbidities (41%), and with some form of functional limitation (66%). Compared to a study based on 2009 BRFSS data, an even smaller proportion of survivors met PA guidelines in this study. This might be due to differences in age distributions and no limitation of the analysis according to time since diagnosis. Targeted interventions to increase activity in cancer survivors continue to be warranted.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.305

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