Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2020, Kinesiology

Breast cancer survivors are a unique cancer population in that they are having success in treatment but are experiencing the negative side effects that various treatments cause, whether it be soon or very long after treatment. As a result of advances in treatment, less and less breast cancer survivors are dying from of their disease. Instead, their mortality is caused by the other conditions that they become at risk for from the treatment effects. Weight gain is an example of one of these side effects that is seen in breast cancer survivors that places these individuals at risk for poor cardiovascular and metabolic health. The combination of benefits seen from engagement in physical activity and dietary behavior change could lend itself to an optimal approach to mitigate the detrimental side effects that we see, especially weight gain. The lifestyle weight management literature in breast cancer survivors has shown that physical activity can be performed safely and effectively, and the inclusion of diet aids in further improvements in weight management. With the increased knowledge and community support for breast cancer survivor programming, assessing the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a community-based lifestyle weight management intervention will assist in addressing the lack of community access that currently exists for breast cancer survivors after their treatment. The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a community-based lifestyle weight management intervention in breast cancer survivors on select body composition, physical function, and quality of life outcomes during the first 3 months of the first wave of the Healthy New Albany Breast Cancer (HNABC) pilot trial. The 24-week, HNABC study is held at a community center and promotes lifestyle behavior changes through a group-mediated cognitive behavioral (GMCB) approach driven by Social Cognitive Theory, in hopes of producing meaningful results for feasibili (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Focht (Advisor); Maryam Lustberg (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Cognitive Therapy; Health Sciences; Kinesiology; Nutrition; Oncology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2021, Kinesiology

Community-based behavioral and exercise interventions with in-person delivery models were challenged to find a new mode of delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic when access to in-person activities were compromised. These interventions are an essential part of chronic disease patients' self-management and health promotion efforts. One particularly prevalent chronic disease, knee osteoarthritis (knee OA), is the leading cause of functional decline in older adults and finding a safe way to deliver the intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to explore the feasibility, enablers, and barriers to virtual intervention delivery in this population. Access to community-based intervention settings for patients with knee OA remain limited even though it is well known that exercise combined with weight loss via dietary changes can provide clinically significant improvements to a patient's overall quality of life (QOL). While these meaningful results are well established, further investigation into the delivery of these interventions through online platforms and understanding the patients' perspective is still needed. By qualitatively capturing the experiences from patients who participated in the Collaborative Lifestyle Intervention Program for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients (CLIP-OA), further understanding can be explored about the feasibility and efficacy of this program to be delivered virtually via a video conferencing platform, such as Zoom, versus the established utility of in-person delivery. An especially important outcome to understand is the intervention's ability to educate patients in the application of knowledge and skills from the program and gather information about the patient's confidence to independently maintain the exercise and dietary behavior changes following cessation of the active intervention contacts. As, the pandemic disruption forced both a pause in in-person research activities and subsequent shift to alternate patient (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Sue Sutherland (Committee Member); Dr. Brian Focht (Advisor) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Health; Kinesiology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2017, Allied Medicine

Thanks to advancements in cancer treatment and detection, there have been exponential increases in the number of cancer survivors in this country. These survivors face a variety of psychological and physiological challenges, including a high prevalence of overweight and obesity, comorbidities, disease recurrence, and all-cause mortality. Behavioral interventions have proven useful for treating overweight and obese individuals, with promising applications in cancer survivors. This includes telehealth-based platforms, as well as the use of in-person and remote health coaches. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a primarily remote tele-motivational interviewing coaching intervention (tele-MI) in a population of overweight and obese cancer survivors' post-active treatment. Participants enrolled in a six-month non-randomized phase 2 clinical trial had unlimited access to a tele-MI coach as part of a comprehensive garden-based lifestyle intervention. This included weekly contact with the tele-MI coach with interactions guided by both MI and social cognitive theory (SCT). Post intervention, participants were defined as “users” or “non-users” based on their perception of tele-MI utilization for analysis. Qualitative survey data and tele-MI interaction logs were analyzed for trends. Two-sample t-tests were performed to assess pre- to post- intervention changes in anthropometrics, physical activity and dietary behaviors, quality of life, self-efficacy, and clinical biomarkers. Twenty-nine participants completed the intervention. There were 17 (59%) tele-MI users and 12 (41%) non-users. Users were primarily female (88%), breast cancer survivors (59%), college educated (82%), with a mean age of 58. Users set 50% more goals, lost more body weight (4.8 kg vs 2.6 kg), significantly improved QOL (P = 0.03), and trended more positively in several clinical biomarkers than non-users. Findings from this study indicate (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Colleen Spees (Advisor); Kay Wolf (Committee Member); Randi Foraker (Committee Chair) Subjects: Health; Nutrition