Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences

Department

Sport and Exercise Psychology

Committee Chair

Samuel Zizzi.

Abstract

Cancer affects millions of Americans each year and as such there are numerous individuals fighting this disease at any time. Though strides are being made every day to better treat and hopefully one day cure this disease, the needs of these patients is a current area receiving a high amount of attention (Meadows et al, 1998). There are numerous positive outcomes associated with physical activity including attenuating cancer side-effects. As such, exercise during cancer treatment has recently received attention within the literature.;The current study aimed to test a novel walking intervention utilizing pedometers to increase physical activity. In addition, the relationships between physical activity and self-efficacy for coping with cancer and quality of life were studied. Ten (N = 10) individuals were enrolled within the investigated. On average, individuals took 34,962.67 (SD = 10,635.49) steps per week throughout the six-week study. Due to the low number of individuals who completed the intervention, relationships between physical activity and the dependent variables are hard to quantify. However, when individuals were looked at in a single-subject fashion, a positive relationship between physical activity and psycho-social variables seemed to exist. Interviews were also conducted (n = 4) and themes of motivation and control arose from these interviews. Though the numerous limitations of the study prevented the use of adequate statistical techniques to quantify relationships among variables, the findings of this study point to the idea that increased physical activity is advantageous to cancer patients. Suggestions based on the numerous challenges of the current study are also included.

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