The feasibility and benefits of a 12-week yoga intervention for pediatric cancer out-patients
Pediatric blood & cancer
Short Title:
Pediatr.Blood Cancer.
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
Nov 30, 2013
Pages:
1828 - 1834
Sources ID:
40636
Notes:
LR: 20140820; CI: (c) 2014; JID: 101186624; OTO: NOTNLM; 2014/03/20 00:00 [received]; 2014/04/17 00:00 [accepted]; 2014/06/19 06:00 [entrez]; 2014/06/19 06:00 [pubmed]; 2014/11/07 06:00 [medline]; ppublish
Collection:
Yoga-Based Interventions for Cancer Treatment
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
BACKGROUND: Increasing rates of survival present a new set of psychosocial and physical challenges for children undergoing treatment for cancer. Physical activity (PA) has been shown to be a safe and effective strategy to mitigate the significant burden of cancer and its treatments, with yoga increasingly gaining recognition as a gentle alternative. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and benefits of a 12-week community-based yoga intervention on health-related quality of life (HRQL), select physical fitness outcomes and PA levels (PAL). PROCEDURE: Eight pediatric cancer out-patients (4 male; 4 female; Mage = 11.88, SD = 4.26) participated in the 12-week intervention consisting of supervised yoga sessions 2 times/week. Participants (patients and parent proxies) completed measures assessing HRQL, physical fitness and PAL at baseline and post-intervention. RESULTS: Rates of recruitment, retention, attendance and adverse events indicated the program was feasible. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests indicated significant improvements for patient (P = 0.02) and parent reported HRQL (P = 0.03), functional mobility (P = 0.01), hamstring flexibility (left, P = 0.01 and right P = 0.02), and total PAL (P = 0.02) pre to post intervention. CONCLUSION: This 12-week community-based yoga intervention was feasible and provides preliminary evidence for the benefits of yoga on HRQL, physical fitness and PAL in pediatric cancer out-patients. In a population where sedentary behavior and the associated co-morbidities are a growing concern, these results promote the continued exploration of yoga programming.