Details

Purpose: The purpose of this symposium is to describe the Active Living After Cancer (ALAC) program, a community-based program to promote physical activity, improve physical function, and improve quality of life in cancer survivors and their caregivers, and to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of the program.

Rationale: Simple lifestyle changes, such as moving more and sitting less, reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and mortality in cancer survivors and improve physical and psychological health and well-being. However, racial and ethnic minority, low income, and medically underserved cancer survivors are at greater risk of being physically inactive. Community-based physical activity interventions ameliorate common barriers to participation reported by minority and medically underserved cancer survivors and are less time and resource intensive, enhancing dissemination and implementation to a wider audience. Group-based interventions further reduce resource needs, and behavioral interventions that include a family member or caregiver may further enhance intervention effectiveness and hold the most promise for promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors in minority and medically underserved cancer survivors.

Objectives: 1) Describe the ALAC program and its adaptation and expansion to medically underserved cancer survivors and their caregivers; 2) evaluative the effectiveness of the ALAC program to improve physical activity, physical function, and quality of life in those who participated in the program in-person and virtually; and 3) identify implementation barriers and facilitators in a new delivery model, where employees task-shift to facilitate implementation.

Summary: ALAC is effective for improving physical activity, physical function, and quality of life in cancer survivors and has been successfully implemented by community partners to reach medically underserved cancer survivors. Utilizing dissemination and implementation strategies are critical to extend the reach of the program, improve cancer survivorship, and reduce cancer health disparities among underserved cancer survivors.

Format: Three presentations will be highlighted: Karen Basen-Engquist from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Yue Liao from The University of Texas at Arlington, and Scherezade Mama from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. At the conclusion of the presentations, there will be a general discussion moderated by Linda Trinh, PhD from the University of Toronto.

Interaction: Online and in-person attendees will be able to interact with the presenters during the discussion and Q&A period.

Speaker