Prevalence, correlates, and psychosocial outcomes of sport participation in young adult cancer survivors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.10.010Get rights and content

Abstract

Young adult cancer survivors (YACS) face unique challenges from their disease and treatments that may influence their sport participation choices as well as their psychosocial response.

Objectives

To examine the prevalence, correlates, and psychosocial outcomes of sport participation in YACS.

Design

A provincial, population-based mailed survey of 588 YACS in Alberta, Canada, was completed in May 2008 and included measures of sport participation, psychosocial health (depression, self-esteem, and stress), quality of life (QoL), and medical and demographic variables.

Results

One third (32.5%) of YACS reported participating in a sport in the past month with the most common being golf (40.8%) and ice hockey (8.3%). YACS participating in sport reported an average frequency of 1.7 (SD = 1.0) days/week and an average duration of 119 min/session (SD = 68) for a total of 189 (SD = 164) min/week. Independent t-tests showed that YACS who participated in sport reported better psychosocial health and QoL including physical QoL (p < 0.001), mental QoL (p < 0.001), self-esteem (p < 0.001), depression (p < 0.001), and stress (p < 0.001). In multivariate regression analysis, 8.5% (p < 0.001) of the variance in sport participation was explained by being male (β = 0.17, p < 0.001), Caucasian (β = 0.15, p = 0.001), in better general health (β = 0.15, p < 0.001), and having a normal body mass index (β = −0.10, p = 0.024).

Discussion/conclusions

Sport participation is associated with better psychosocial health and QoL in YACS but only a third participated in the past month. Randomized controlled trials examining sport as an intervention strategy to increase physical activity and improve health outcomes in YACS are warranted.

Highlights

► Young adult cancer survivors that participated in sports had better psychosocial outcomes. ► The most common sport being golf (40.8%) followed by ice hockey (8.3%). ► Subgroups are less active in sport i.e. women, minorities, obese, and those in poorer health. ► Sport may be an effective way to increase physical activity in young adult cancer survivors.

Section snippets

Participants and procedures

Ethics approval was received from the Alberta Health Services ethics board and the University of Alberta ethics board. These data are from a cross-sectional study of PA that has been described fully elsewhere (Bélanger et al., 2011, 2012b; Bélanger, Plotnikoff, Clark, & Courneya, 2012a). Eligibility for the study were: (1) diagnosed with invasive cancer in Alberta between the ages of 20–44 and (2) still between the ages of 20 and 44 and living in Alberta, Canada. There is still debate among

Results

Flow of participants through the study has been reported elsewhere (Bélanger et al., 2011). Briefly, of the 2000 mailed surveys, 588 surveys were returned completed and 460 were returned because of a wrong address resulting in a 29% completion rate (588/2000) and a 38% response rate (588/1540) excluding the wrong addresses. Demographic and medial date have also been reported elsewhere (Bélanger et al., 2011). In brief, the mean age of the participants was 38.2 ± 5.6, 70% were female, mean

Discussion

Approximately one third of YACS reported participating in sport, which is comparable to the 31% sport participation rate reported in the general Canadian population of the same age range (Statistics Canada, 2005). Moreover, it is also comparable to the 34% reported in a study of adolescent cancer survivors (Keats et al., 1999). It is slightly higher, however, than the 23% sport participation rate reported for colorectal survivors who were generally older with a mean age of over 65 years (

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