Study Reveals Home-Based Intervention Helps Senior Cancer Survivors

Updated on June 24, 2013

Seniors usually are most comfortable in their homes and doctors often concur.

If their doctor agrees that your senior loved one can be at home, ask what they will need to successfully maintain their independence.

A study, presented recently at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, revealed that home-based diet and exercise interventions can improve the physical function of senior citizens who are long-term cancer survivors.

Those interventions proved particularly important for seniors, who are known to have more difficulty than younger people in recovering normal functions, like climbing stairs, carrying groceries or taking a shower, than younger people.  Those in this intervention group made significant recovery.

To be included, patients had to be older than 65 years, have survived their cancer for at least five years with no evidence of recurrence, have no medical conditions that would preclude unsupervised exercise, and be overweight or obese.

Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or a wait-list control group. Those in the intervention group received tailored mailed print materials on diet and exercise, a pedometer and exercise bands.  For the first three weeks, participants received weekly phone calls, which tapered off to every two weeks and then once a month until the end of the study.  At the end of one year, researchers evaluated physical function, diet quality and physical activity using standard measures.  Participants in the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in their diet and exercise behaviors, and their weight status.

What’s more, according to the SF-36 physical function test, participants in the intervention group had a 2.5 point decline compared with a 5.3 point decline in the control group.

Seniors could benefit from support in their homes with tasks such as meal preparation, personal care and exercise assistance, light housekeeping, errands and shopping and companionship.

CAREGivers from Home Instead Senior Care can make a difference in the lives of older adults and their families by providing support with activities of daily living to help keep them independent for as long as possible.

For more information about this study, log on to http://www.aacr.org/home/public–media/aacr-press-releases/press-releases-2008.aspx?d=1183

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