EXERCISE BARRIERS IN THE CONTEXT OF FATIGUE AND INTENSITY AND FREQUENCY OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION IN CANCER PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: to examine the exercise barriers along with fatigue levels and the frequency and intensity of exercise that cancer patients usually engage in.

Methods: A cross sectional survey with a convenience sample of 100 cancer patients was used. Standardized measures were used to evaluate fatigue (Multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form) measure exercise frequency and intensity (Leisure).

Results: A 93% response rate was achieved. A total of 50.5% were male and 49.5% were female with majority with stage 4(62.4%) and stage 3(17.2%) lungs (17.2%), breast (15.1%), brain (14%), cervical (12.9%) and colorectal (10.85) cancer. A total of 89.2% reported fatigue with 84.6% experiencing on daily basis. A total of 96.8% received fatigue advice. A total of 16.1% reported to perform strenuous type of activity, 39.8% engage in moderate intense activity and 63.5% are engage in mild exercise per week. Barriers that interfered with exercise “often/very often” were mainly fatigue, lack of motivation and pain.

Conclusion: cancer patients experience significant level of fatigue during the cancer treatment and majority of patients are engage in very low intense physical activity. Exercise barriers found were mainly fatigue, lack of motivation and pain which can be alleviate through different techniques and strategies.