Project description:Interventions: The intervention arm is named HoPS, an acronym of Home-based Physical Activity for Survivors.
HoPS intervention programme aims to improve physical activity level among cancer survivors, in particular breast and colorectal cancer by employing Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) in the development of the programme. It combines of psychoeducation and social media approach to behavioural intervention. Participants of the HoPS will be provided with a non-tailored printed material and gradual tapering down of face-to-face group meetings to improve knowledge and skills of physical activity. While WhatsApp is used as a structured direct remote feedback strategy to allow for supervised home-based physical activity.
1. Face-to-face group meetings
There will be 2 meet up sessions for all participants in the HoPS group. The sessions provide a standardized lectures deliver by the researcher using power point slides. The first session of lecture (1-hour duration) will cover the areas of a brief introduction of HoPS programme, physical activity knowledge and goal setting. The second session of lecture (15-minutes duration) will cover for barriers to physical activity and following that a sharing session (15-minutes duration) by a role model (a cancer survivor) to share her experience in engaging in physical activity. In each of the sessions, after the lectures, an exercise session will be conducted by a certified exercise instructor with at least 3 years experienced in coaching for exercise. The duration of this exercise session will be 2 hours and the focus is train the participants on how to perform a proper and correct exercise for cancer survivors. This will involved aerobic exercises and resistance exercis
Primary outcome(s): Total MET-minutes/week using validated IPAQ [Baseline, at 8-week (immediately after intervention) and at 16-week post intervention]
Study Design: Purpose: Educational / counselling / training; Allocation: Randomised controlled trial; Masking: Blinded (masking used);Assignment: Parallel;Type of endpoint: Efficacy
Project description:A number of chronic, age-related diseases are associated with elevated markers of inflammation such as interleukin-6 (IL-6). In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that sedentary individuals with disparate basal serum IL-6 respond differentially to a structured physical activity programme. Gene expression changes in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) induced by physical activity was investigated in sedentary, middle-aged men (mean age 52.6 years and BMI 29.1), with relatively high or low basal serum IL-6 levels (mean of 2.13 and 0.59pg/ml respectively), who undertook a 24-week physical activity programme with blood sampling in the pre-exercise period and at the end of 24-weeks prescribed physical activity. AgilentTM Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarrays were utilised to examine the effects of physical activity on mRNA expression profiles of the Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) at 2 time points (pre-exercise, and after 24 weeks physical activity. There were 6 individuals per group.
Project description:Objective: To evaluate gene expression profiles in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who improved their fatigue status after a program of physical exercise and to compare them with healthy controls (HC). Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted. Gene expression in whole blood was profiled at baseline in 7 healthy controls and also in 7 fatigued-MS patients. Patients underwent a physical exercise program for 6 months, and their fatigue status and gene expression profiles were again analyzed at the end of this program. Results: MS patients showed a significant activation of genes participating in the systemic interferon response in comparison with healthy controls. Fatigue improved at the end of the physical activity program, and, in parallel, systemic activation of interferon related genes disappeared. Conclusions: Fatigue improvement following an exercise program is associated to down modulation of interferon activity at the systemic level in MS patients. Our results provide a biological basis for the observed benefit of physical exercise in MS.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Physical activity (PA) in adolescence is crucial for lifelong healthy lifestyle, and attention is needed to adolescents at health risk due to insufficient PA. This study investigates the composition of weekly PA in adolescents by PA level and provides a rationale for change in their lifestyles. METHODS:The research was conducted at 66 schools in Poland between 2009 and 2016, among 949 girls and 650 boys aged 15-18?years. We used pedometers to monitor weekly PA with data assessed using the Indares web app. The participants were split into three groups by mean daily step count (lower, < 9000; middle, 9000-12,999; and higher, ? 13,000 steps/day), as a reliable and non-expensive indicator of PA. RESULTS:We did not observe statistically significant differences in composition of 7-day PA between participants with varying levels of PA, regardless of their gender (F(12,9558)?=?0.60; p?=?0.841; ?p2?>?0.000). The smallest differences in daily step counts by PA level were found on Mondays and the biggest on Fridays and Saturdays, in boys and girls; the differences between average school and average weekend days were most pronounced in less active girls (1677 steps/day) and boys (1886 steps/day). During the school week, the highest proportion of less active girls met the 11,000 steps/day recommendation on Fridays (21.9%), statistically significantly less than on other school days (p?<?0.001). Similarly, less active boys (22.2%) had significantly less activity on Fridays than on other school days, except for Mondays (p?=?0.143) Analogous pattern was apparent also in more active adolescents. CONCLUSIONS:Less active adolescents have comparable composition of weekly PA to the more active ones but they can hardly meet the generally accepted PA recommendations. Better understanding of weekly PA composition and rates of meeting PA recommendations by day of the week can lead to more efficient interventions improving lifestyles. The recommendation of 9000 steps/day most days of the week, thus, appears appropriate for less active adolescents, as a motivating achievable goal.
Project description:Over the last decades different life style factors have been established as risk factors for various diseases. The obesity pandemic displays a good example of a disease where great effort is undertaken to characterize risk factors associated with obesity (1). Smoking is another life style risk factor established since several decades, and where primary prevention has been increasingly successful (2, 3). Cardiovascular epidemiologic research at the University of Gothenburg recognized PA as a factor of importance early on and thus included PA related questions in the work up of studies with large cohorts (4-6). A 4-level scale was introduced in the late 1960:s by Saltin and Grimby (7) and has been used extensively since then. With this background it is of interest to record physical activity one year and one month prior to certain types of elective surgery and to study the relationship of PA to surgical complications and recovery is of interest.
The aim of this study is to investigate whether a higher physical activity prior to a surgical procedure reduces hospital stay, sick leave and the complication rate.
A secondary aim is to investigate the effect of preoperative physical activity on the rate of resumption of QoL and normal physical function.
Project description:Background/Purpose: Prior studies show an independent association between greater physical activity and lower inflammatory markers among adults in the general population, but the impact of physical activity on systemic inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) hasn’t been thoroughly investigated. We therefore aimed to determine whether physical activity behavior associates with differential expression of inflammatory genes in RA. Methods: Data derive from baseline assessments for a prospective observational cohort of patients with RA. At each study visit, we obtained detailed clinical information, collected peripheral whole blood for subsequent RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), and provided participants with actigraphs (GT9X ActiGraph Link device) to objectively measure physical activity by wearing the device at home for 7 consecutive 24-hour periods. Participants were categorized into three physical activity groups based on the highest (“active”), middle (“intermediate”), and lowest (“inactive”) tertiles for percentage of time spent in moderate/vigorous physical activity (metabolic equivalent (MET) level ≥2.00) across the sample. Results: There were 35 patients with complete clinical, actigraphy, and transcriptomic data available for analysis. The participants had a mean age of 56 years, were 90% female, and self-reported the following racial/ethnic identities: 32% white, 11% African American, 8% Asian, 40% Hispanic. Participants spent 48%, 41%, and 12% of time awake in sedentary, light, and moderate physical activity, respectively. None of the participants achieved vigorous activity. The patients in the most active group were younger but did not otherwise significantly differ by clinical and demographic characteristics compared to the other physical activity groups. However, in the differential gene expression analysis comparing the highest versus lowest physical activity tertiles, there were 365 up- and 402 down-regulated genes at an adjusted P value < 0.1. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that the most physically active patients exhibited downregulation of diverse innate and adaptive immune signaling pathways. Assessment of upstream cytokine activation states demonstrated inhibition of type I, II and III interferons and activation of EPO in the highest physical activity tertile patients. Conclusion: Among a racially and ethnically diverse RA cohort, participants who spent more time in moderately intense physical activity had down-regulation of genes involved in both innate and adaptive immune signaling compared to those who were more sedentary. These findings provide mechanistic evidence to support a disease-modifying effect of physical activity in RA.
Project description:A number of chronic, age-related diseases are associated with elevated markers of inflammation such as interleukin-6 (IL-6). In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that sedentary individuals with disparate basal serum IL-6 respond differentially to a structured physical activity programme. Gene expression changes in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) induced by physical activity was investigated in sedentary, middle-aged men (mean age 52.6 years and BMI 29.1), with relatively high or low basal serum IL-6 levels (mean of 2.13 and 0.59pg/ml respectively), who undertook a 24-week physical activity programme with blood sampling in the pre-exercise period and at the end of 24-weeks prescribed physical activity.
Project description:This study is a two-arm trial, comparing the effects of a virtual 12-week group-based exercise intervention vs. control group on physical activity, physical fitness, and quality of life in colorectal cancer survivors, and explore multi-level determinants of physical activity maintenance, 6-months after intervention completion.
Project description:Insufficient physical activity is associated with increased relative risk of cardiometabolic disease and is an independent risk factor for mortality. Experimentally reducing physical activity rapidly induces insulin resistance, impairs glucose handling, and drives metabolic inflexibility. These adaptations manifest during the early stages of physical inactivity, even when energy balance is maintained, suggesting that inactivity-mediated metabolic reprogramming is an early event that precedes changes in body composition. To identify mechanisms that promote metabolic adaptations associated with physical inactivity, we developed a mouse model of physical activity reduction that permits the study of inactivity in animals prior to the onset of overt changes in body composition. Adult mice were randomized into three groups: an inactive control group (standard housing), an active control group (treadmill running for 6-weeks), and an activity reduction group (treadmill running for 4-weeks, followed by 2-weeks of inactivity). Transcriptional profiling of gastrocnemius muscle was performed.
Project description:Gene expression changes in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) induced by physical activity was investigated in sedentary middle-aged men (mean age 52.6 years and BMI 29.1) who undertook a 24-week physical activity programme with blood sampling in the pre-exercise period , at the end of 24-weeks prescribed physical activity , and following a two-week detraining period. AgilentTM Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarrays were utilised to examine the effects of physical activity on mRNA expression profiles of the Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) at 3 time points (pre-exercise, after 24 weeks physical activity, and at 26 weeks after 2 weeks detraining. There were 12 participants in this programme.