Pilot Project C: Exercise in Hispanic Breast Cancer Survivors
Co-Investigators
Karen Basen-Engquist, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Daniel Hughes, Ph.D., Instructor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Edna Mora, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Surgery and Pathology, University of Puerto Rico - School of Medicine; Associate Professor, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
Maribel Tirado-Gomez, M.D., Assistant Professor, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
Guillermo Tortolero-Luna, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Cancer Control and Population Studies, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
For cancer survivors, exercise can be an important tertiary prevention intervention and survivors can benefit as much if not more than the general population from exercise behaviors. Documented benefits of exercise include improved physical and emotional well-being, reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, weight management, osteoporosis and, for survivors, second primary cancers. While we now understand a great deal about the benefits of exercise for cancer survivors, we need more research to identify effective interventions to encourage survivors to begin and maintain exercise as research indicates survivors tend to decrease or cease activity after diagnosis with most never regaining former levels of activity after treatment. An active lifestyle can greatly impact public health cost burden, especially those carrying a disparate burden.
Approximately 1.8 million of the 10.5 million cancer survivors in the United States are Hispanic. For Hispanic women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and, for Puerto Rico, breast cancer accounts for approximately 34% of all female cancers. Within the Hispanic ethnicity, there are many cultural differences that interact with parameters that affect health behaviors, including exercise adoption and maintenance. Thus we believe that investigating the key variables that affect exercise adoption and maintenance within specific cultural contexts should be a high priority for research. How these variables differ between and within specific ethnic cancer survivor populations is critical to developing culturally competent behavioral interventions.
Specific Aims
- To explore whether predictors of exercise adherence, as defined by a Social Cognitive Theory-based model, differ between Hispanic and non-Hispanic breast cancer survivors
- To explore whether predictors of exercise adherence, as defined by a Social Cognitive Theory-based model, differ between Mexican-American and Puerto-Rican Hispanic breast cancer survivors
- To pilot test a randomized trial of a culturally tailored Social Cognitive Theory-based exercise intervention on Mexican-American Hispanic breast cancer survivors
- To pilot test a randomized trial of a culturally tailored Social Cognitive Theory-based exercise intervention on Puerto Rican Hispanic breast cancer survivors
- To develop an ROI funding proposal for a randomized trial of a culturally tailored social cognitive theory-based exercise intervention for Hispanic cancer survivors