Cancer is the second leading cause of death, with about approximately 1.9 million Americans being diagnosed each year. Yet, it has high survival rates with the help of advancing treatments like radiation therapy. Cancer patients and survivors are contingent on experiencing a decline in physical functioning, quality of life, and physiological parameters. Treatment is effective and can prolong life expectancy but can be deleterious to a patient’s health. Parallel with cancer's impact on Americans is cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 1 in 4 deaths. The development of cardiovascular disease is not spread accordantly among all ethnicities. Hispanics are more likely to have a type of cardiovascular disease. Structured exercise has consistently been established to be an effective countermeasure for diminishing cardiovascular risk factors, adverse side effects, and symptoms of cancer and cancer treatment. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effect of structured exercise to address 3 questions with limited data. The evaluation included the incidence of cardiovascular disease in at-risk Hispanics, physiological adaptions to a structured exercise program, and the effect of radiation therapy on exercise outcomes. Subjects for each study were enrolled in a 6 10-week structured exercise program consisting of aerobic, resistance, and flexibility exercises. Conclusions were no difference in exercise benefits in ethnicity but exercise did improve cancer survivors’ physical functioning in all domains.

Fall risk among older adult is a worldwide public health problem. As the older adult population is continuing to increase, addressing this issue is critical. Several fall risk assessment tools have been designed to help predict various risk factors. Among these assessment tools is the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model (HIIFRM). This tool uses evidence-based risk factors including mental status, sex, functional status, and whether the patient is taking antileptics and/or benzodiazepines. The purpose of this paper is to validate the HFRM, explore additional variables that increase the likelihood of falling including both past falls and the number of prescription medications a patient is taking. Our findings validate the HFRM; with each additional point on the HFRM score, holding all other explanatory variables constant, the odds of having multiple previous fall-related admissions increased by 38.3% (P < 0.001). The strongest predictor of future falls was previous falls. With confounders held constant, each additional previous fall predicted a 3.9-fold increase in the odds of experiencing a future fall (p < 0.001; 95% CI of OR: 3.131 to 4.961). When looking at prescription medications, for each additional increase in prescription medications, we observe a 11.8% increase in the number of falls experienced during the tracking period (p<0.001; 95% CI of IRR: 1.084 to 1.170). Although a validated tool, our research indicates additional variables that could further enhance its effectiveness.

Most universities offer fitness and recreational opportunities. Few prospective studies have measured the effect of those services on academic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of exercise behavior and recreational sport participation on student success. We tracked 1,507 students at a private D1 university for 4 years. Upon completion of the 2017-2018 academic year, we exported a registry of every undergraduate student who accessed the university fitness center. We documented how often students swiped into the recreation facility and participated in group exercise classes, personal training sessions, and rock tower usage; these served as independent variables. We also recorded semester and cumulative GPA for the Spring 2018 semester; these served as dependent variables. Independent-sample t-tests and chi-squared tests measured group differences in academic outcomes. Linear regressions tested the effects of combinations of independent variables on GPA respectively. The results showed a 18.6% usage of Baun Fitness Center; 8.9% participated in group exercise classes, 0.15% participated in personal training sessions, and 4.8% participated in using the rock tower. Mean GPA was 3.1 ± 0.6. Significant and trending elevations of GPA were observed in students who participated in group exercise classes (p<.001; 95% CI: 0.1 to 0.4) and swiped into Baun Fitness Center (p<.001). Analysis indicated no significant correlation between the number of rock tower swipes and personal training sessions with undergraduate GPA. In conclusion, increased involvement in exercise and recreational sports is associated with a higher GPA. Administrative emphasis on fitness programming may be an effective way to enhance student success.

The aim of the current study was to reconstruct the sport venue quality dimensionsas an autonomous quality with a utilitarian perspective and examine the impact on spectators’ perceived risk, price perception, and sustained consumption intentions. Venues for National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) games that mostly represent indoor and outdoor sporting facilities were chosen, and subjects were spectators who have experience of attending professional team sport events in sport venues. The study employed an online survey for data collection, and a total of 595 samples were utilized for data analyses. The data set was randomly split into two halves for a principal component analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Results of the PCA generated 11 factors for venue quality including seating comfort, facility aesthetics, layout accessibility, safety, cleanliness, seating view, space allocation, facility system, electronic device, parking, and signage. The reliability and validity of the measurement model were also confirmed. In the structural model analyses, venue quality was found to be significantly associated with perceived value, perceived risk, and sustained consumption intentions. The relationships among perceived value, perceived risk, and sustained consumption intentions were also positively significant. The mediating effects of perceived value and perceived risk were found in the relationship between venue quality and sustained consumption intentions. The findings of the current research will contribute to the sport management literature by providing meaningful insights on capturing the essence of sport venue quality, based on an autonomous quality, and how it affects spectators’ price perception, alleviates perceived risk, and leads to sustained consumption intentions.

Athletes have continually sought to improve their physical performance. In order to accomplish this, athletes experiment with performance enhancing drugs, which are readily available to the athlete today. Cocaine, being one of them, is traditionally and popularly believed to increase muscular endurance and possess anti-fatiguing properties. The scientific literature as to whether cocaine is truly a performance enhancing drug is inconclusive. Moreover, few if any studies have been conducted on exercise performance following long term, repeated cocaine administration. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of 35 days of cocaine administration (25 mg/kg/day) on maximal endurance exercise capacity. Data were collected from six untrained male Sprague-Dawley rats. Resting and exercise heart rate and body temperature were recorded via radio telemetery. Running time to exhaustion was recorded via one weekly maximal treadmill exercise bout to exhaustion (26 m/min, at a 10% grade). Compared to saline controls, cocaine significantly decreased run time to exhaustion, following acute and chronic administration. Cocaine administration also significantly decreased maximal exercise heart rate. Chronic cocaine had minimal effects on resting heart rate and resting and exercise body temperature during maximal exercise conditions. These data indicate that daily, chronic cocaine administration significantly reduces endurance exercise capacity, and suggests that the decreased physical work capacity following cocaine is related to a decreased ability of the heart to function under maximal exercise conditions.

Background: In the United States, 30-60% of older adults fall each year; 10-20% of these falls result in injury, hospitalization, or even death. Better prevention of falls in this population may be facilitated by broader identification of risk factors. The use of statins has emerged as a potential risk factor, but the data provide conflicted results. Purpose: To examine the relationship between statin use and falls among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: We evaluated the patient registry of a Level 1 trauma center. All patients aged > 50 years who were admitted for falls in 2015 were included (n=615). Many of these patients had been previously admitted for falls and many were later readmitted for falls. We analyzed predictors of both prior admission and readmission with linear regressions. Independent variables were self-reported balance problems, diagnosis of dementia, and the use of statins. Results: On average, patients admitted for falls were 79.9 + 9.3 years old and 28% (n=173) were taking statins. Our collection of predictors explained 14.2% of the variance in the number of prior admissions (p<0.001). In this model, the use of statins significantly predicted the number of previous fall-related admissions (95% CI: 0.07–0.50, p=0.010). This same model maintained its significance when predicting admissions for future falls (p<0.001) and the use of statins continued to predict a greater number of readmissions (95% CI: 0.04–0.36, p=0.015). Conclusion: More than 25% of all Americans age > 40 years are taking cholesterol-lowering medication; 93% of those medications are statins. Although evidence is conflicted, these data support the finding that statin therapy increases the risk of falls in older adults. Incorporating exercise training as a prophylactic measure: enhancing lipid profiles and decreasing the need for statins while also improving balance, coordination, and mobility, may reduce fall-related injuries.

Sports clubs are a program ran through Pacific Recreation at the University of the Pacific. This study determines whether using services and facilities that Pacific Recreation offers has a statistically significant relationship with students joining or participating in sports clubs. METHOD: When a student comes into the Baun Fitness Center to work out, participate in a class, take part of personal training, or climb the rock tower, that student has to swipe into the facility and service of choice. The same process occurs for when a student wants to use external services like Intramural Sports and Informal Recreation. Quantitative data were pulled from Innosoft Fusion, software that Pacific Recreation utilizes to manage and track their facilities, programs, and services. 2,332 individual student datum were analyzed from the information received from Innosoft Fusion to measure student engagement from the Fall 2017 semester. RESULTS: The Baun Fitness Center and other external services were found to play a significant role with association with participation in sports clubs. Participation in Baun Fitness Center workouts, rock tower, informal recreation, tiger training, and intramural sports associates with participation in sports clubs. It was determined that for each additional individual that participates in these services or programs, there would be an increased chance of individuals to also participate in sports clubs. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that there are additional ways for sports clubs to advertise and promote their clubs for recruitment. Pacific Recreation’ marketing department can use the results from this study to analyze and plan additional marketing strategies that can use cross-promotion from the programs, services, and facilities Pacific Recreation has to offer. This study recommends multiple future research ideas for Pacific Recreation to take apart in to gain new insights on participation and marketing ideas from all of their programs.

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to determine where the need for a sports education program exists in the rural areas of Southeastern Tennessee. The problem was to define key elements needed to establish a curriculum and a leadership process for the adults involved in youth sports. Twenty-three youth sports directors were interviewed. The youth sports directors in this study perceived a child-centered program along with sportsmanship, character, responsibility, rebuilding participation, and the impact of a role model as the guiding principles for the mission of any youth sports program. Other emergent themes included curriculum topics such as rules and fundamental skills of each sport, safety and health issues, security, communication and teaching methods, conflict management, how to deal with adversity, and organization skills. The retention of top coaches and leaders in youth sports is important. The perceptions of the 23 sports directors in rural Southeastern Tennessee programs are vital in clarifying the sports educational needs for coaches and leaders. Sports education clinics and forums, as well as ongoing training, allow opportunities for directors, commissioners, coaches, and other community leaders to meet and discuss issues that are essential to providing the best experience for children while continuing to retain the best leaders and supporters of the programs. The implication from this study is that communities and higher education institutions should also consider the training and preparedness of future youth sports leaders to be successful beyond the x's and o's. Attention should be paid to the differences in communities that have a sports education program in place and those that do not and the support of community leaders for a youth sports program.

NFL teams spend massive sums to ensure they are prepared for the future, but how should they determine whom that future includes? This study set out to find what predicts NFL success more accurately – collegiate in-game performance or the NFL Draft Combine. In the sample of 2007-2012 first-round picks, 191 athletes were measured in three NFL Draft Combine drills, two physical components, and a varying amount of ingame collegiate and NFL performance statistical categories, dependent on position. Secondarily, this work examined Power 5 and non-Power 5 players to determine if attending a more prolific program was predictive of NFL success. Findings included that 40-yard dash and vertical jump are predictive of offensive linemen and cornerback NFL success, that in-game collegiate statistics are most indicative of NFL success amongst defensive players, and that Power 5 prospects are no more prepared for NFL success than those coming from non-Power 5 schools.

College athletics have faced a lot of challenges and changes in the last two decades. Sports like football and basketball have been the main money-making streams for NCAA. With the popularity of college athletics growing, members of the business community have seen this as an opportunity to make money, especially members of the media. In turn, student-athletes have factored the ability to make money off of their own name, image, and likeness (NIL) into their college education decision. In order to explore this relationship between college athletics and the media industry, I analyzed how media rights in college basketball have affected college basketball recruiting over the last five years. Teams are not only recruiting players from high school, but they have to work hard and recruit players from the transfer portal, which allows for mid-collegiate-career changes. With the introduction of NIL, recruiting highly ranked players has become a complex process in that teams with smaller budgets feel helpless because money is not an issue for the bigger schools. In my research, I analyzed players and teams from all levels within Division 1 basketball, and through statistical analysis, The research found that better players are attracted by more affluent athletic programs. Teams with higher media rights revenue and overall revenue have a big advantage when it comes to recruiting highly rated high-school players or transfers. School enrollment does not play a significant role in some cases because student-athletes are mostly focused on their athletic experience.