23 research outputs found
Exercise duration for cognitive health in breast cancer survivors
No full textThe student, Elizabeth Awick, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-11 at 14:57.The student, Elizabeth Awick, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2017-04-11 at 15:02.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2017-04-11 at 15:37.Many breast cancer survivors report deficits in cognitive functioning. Physical activity (PA) has been associated with better processing speed and memory and may prove a useful behavioral modality for improving cognition in breast cancer survivors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the differential duration effects of acute bouts of PA on executive function and processing speed in breast cancer survivors. Breast cancer survivors (N=48, M age=56.02) completed two sessions in counterbalanced order: moderate-intensity treadmill walking and seated rest. Participants were also randomized to one of three time groups: 10 (n=15), 20 (n=16), or 30 (n=17) minutes, signifying the length of time spent walking and resting. Immediately before and after each session, women completed a battery of cognitive tasks. Within- and between-subjects repeated measures analyses of variance revealed several moderately-sized and meaningful three-way (e.g., time by activity by group) interactions. On the flanker task, women were significantly less accurate over time in the resting activity compared with the exercise activity in the 20-minute group (d = .75). On single task blocks of the task switching paradigm, women performed significant slower after resting compared with after exercising in both the 10- (d = -.96) and 30-minute (d = -.52) groups. On the processing speed task, women performed significantly faster after exercising compared with after resting in the 20-minute group (d = -.24). Upon collapsing the sample for nonsignificant three-way interactions, two significant time by activity interactions emerged. Specifically, women performed significantly faster on the 2-item Spatial Working Memory task (d = -.21) and more accurately on the 3-item Spatial Working Memory task (d = .18) after exercise compared with after rest. Notably, these effects were irrespective of time spent exercising and resting. While the optimal length of exercise for providing short-lived cognitive benefits remains unclear, this study offers some initial preliminary evidence for maintained and improved cognitive function after a bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise compared with seated rest in breast cancer survivors.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10702 on 2017-08-10 at 14:30:23Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T19:51:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3
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Previous issue date: 2017-04-11Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 102611
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Higher cardiorespiratory fitness levels are associated with greater hippocampal volume in breast cancer survivors
No full textPublisher's PDFAs breast cancer treatment is associated with declines in brain and cognitive health, it
is important to identify strategies to enhance the cognitive vitality of cancer survivors.
In particular, the hippocampus is known to play an important role in brain and memory
declines following cancer treatment. The hippocampus is also known for its plasticity
and positive association with cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). The present study explores
whether CRF may hold promise for lessening declines in brain and cognitive health of
a sample of breast cancer survivors within 3 years of completion of primary cancer
treatment. We explored the role of cardiovascular fitness in hippocampal structure in
breast cancer survivors and non-cancer female controls, as well as performed a median
split to compare differences in hippocampal volume in relatively higher fit and lower fit
cancer survivors and non-cancer controls. Indeed, CRF and total hippocampal volume
were positively correlated in the cancer survivors. In particular, higher fit breast cancer
survivors had comparable hippocampal volumes to non-cancer control participants
(Cohen’s d = 0.13; p > 0.3), whereas lower fit breast cancer survivors showed
significantly smaller hippocampal volumes compared to both lower fit and higher fit
control participants (Cohen’s d = 0.87, p < 0.05). These results are the first to identify
that CRF may protect the brain health of breast cancer survivors within 3 years of
treatment. The present study uniquely contributes to the field of cancer and cognition
and emphasizes the importance of investigating how individual differences in CRF play a
role in brain changes of breast cancer survivors.University of Delaware. Department of Behavioral Health & Nutrition
Effects of a randomized exercise trial on physical activity, psychological distress and quality of life in older adults
No full textContamination by an Active Control Condition in a Randomized Exercise Trial.
No full textContamination is commonly overlooked in randomized trials. The present study examined contamination (minutes of aerobic activity outside of exercise sessions) within an active control condition in a 6-month randomized exercise trial for older adults. We hypothesized that outside aerobic activity would be greater in the control condition compared to the intervention conditions. Participants (mean age = 65.06 years, 66.2% female) were randomly assigned to: Dance (n = 50), Walking, (n = 108), or Strength/Stretching/Stability (SSS; n = 48). Dance and Walking represented the experimental conditions and SSS the control condition. Participants attended exercise sessions three times weekly for 24 weeks. Participants recorded their physical activity outside of class on a weekly home log. Group assignment and covariates (age, gender, body mass index, exercise session intensity and enjoyment, and program adherence) were examined as predictors of weekly aerobic activity outside of exercise sessions. Participants who returned zero home logs were removed from the dataset (final N = 195). Out-of-class aerobic activity was lowest in the Walking group. Significant effects of gender, group, enjoyment, and intensity on out-of-class weekly aerobic activity were observed, all p<0.003. Higher perceived enjoyment of exercise sessions was associated with more out-of-class aerobic activity, while higher perceived intensity was associated with less out-of-class aerobic activity. A group x intensity interaction, p = 0.002, indicated that group differences in out-of-class aerobic activity were evident only among those with lower intensity perceptions. Walkers may have perceived exercise sessions as sufficient weekly exercise, while the Dance and SSS groups may have perceived the sessions as necessary, but insufficient. The lower aerobic intensity Dancers attributed to exercise sessions and non-aerobic nature of SSS may partially explain contamination observed in this study. Further examination of contamination in randomized controlled exercise trials is critically needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01472744
Group differences in out-of-class aerobic activity overall and by perceived intensity of exercise sessions.
No full text*Mean unstandardized predicted values (adjusted for gender).</p
Weekly Aerobic Activity Outside of Program Sessions.
No full textWeekly Aerobic Activity Outside of Program Sessions.</p
