title: The feasibility and benefits of a 12-week yoga intervention for pediatric cancer out-patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increasing rates of survival present a new set of psychosocial and physical challenges for children undergoing treatment for cancer. Physical activity (PA) has been shown to be a safe and effective strategy to mitigate the significant burden of cancer and its treatments, with yoga increasingly gaining recognition as a gentle alternative. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and benefits of a 12-week community-based yoga intervention on health-related quality of life (HRQL), select physical fitness outcomes and PA levels (PAL).
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight pediatric cancer out-patients (4 male; 4 female; Mage  = 11.88, SD = 4.26) participated in the 12-week intervention consisting of supervised yoga sessions 2 times/week. Participants (patients and parent proxies) completed measures assessing HRQL, physical fitness and PAL at baseline and post-intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rates of recruitment, retention, attendance and adverse events indicated the program was feasible. Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests indicated significant improvements for patient (P = 0.02) and parent reported HRQL (P = 0.03), functional mobility (P = 0.01), hamstring flexibility (left, P = 0.01 and right P = 0.02), and total PAL (P = 0.02) pre to post intervention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This 12-week community-based yoga intervention was feasible and provides preliminary evidence for the benefits of yoga on HRQL, physical fitness and PAL in pediatric cancer out-patients. In a population where sedentary behavior and the associated co-morbidities are a growing concern, these results promote the continued exploration of yoga programming.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wurz
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chamorro-Vina
authors.forename: Gregory M T
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Guilcher
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: S Nicole
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Culos-Reed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011788:Quality of Life; D015013:Yoga
keywords: alternative medicine; pediatric oncology; physical fitness; psychosocial; quality of life; yoga