INTRODUCTION: Anxiety has been thoroughly reported in response to the treatment of breast cancer, however, the research examining the effects of acute exercise among breast cancer survivors is limited. Only one study, primarily exploratory in design, has examined the anxiolytic effects of acute exercise with breast cancer survivors. PURPOSE: 1) Determine whether acute exercise reduces state anxiety in breast cancer survivors and those without a cancer diagnosis in a similar fashion. 2) Investigate the difference between exercise intensity conditions for pre-post and post-after state anxiety changes. 3) Examine whether changes in self-efficacy are reciprocal with the changes in state anxiety. and 4) Explore selected moderator variables of the exercise-state anxiety relationship. METHODS: Twenty-five breast cancer survivors and twenty-five age-matched women without a cancer diagnosis cycled for 20 minutes at light and moderate intensities on two separate occasions. State anxiety and self-efficacy measures were completed before, immediately following and 10 minutes post exercise. RESULTS: 2 x 3 RM ANOVA revealed a main effect for time for both light and moderate conditions (F(2.46) = 10.09. p < .01. n2 = .18 and F(2.47) = 22.34. p < .01. r 2 = .32 respectively) but between group interaction effects were not significant. For self-efficacy. 2 x 3 RM ANOVA found main effects for both light and moderate conditions (light exercise F(2. 41) = 9.82. p < .01. n2 = .19; moderate exercise F (2.44, = 4.86. p < .01. n2 = .10) with no between group interaction effects. Correlations between anxiety and self-efficacy change scores showed moderate associations for light condition post-after exercise (r = .50. p < .040) and moderate condition pre-post exercise (r = .29. p < .05). In a secondary analysis. groups median split on high/low trait anxiety showed significant differences between groups (light exercise F( 1.43) = 5.05, p < .05. n2 = .11: moderate exercise F(1.44) = 6.16. p< .05. n2 = .12) as did results median split by pre-exercise state anxiety levels (light exercise F,1.45) = 33.21. p < .01, n2 =.45: moderate exercise F(1.46) = 58.93, p < .01. q2 =.56). CONCLUSION: Exercise decreases state anxiety for breast cancer survivors and the general population alike. However. this relationship appears to be moderated by trait anxiety and pre-exercise anxiety. Self-efficacy is important for dose-response and theory-based exercise prescriptions, but future research should focus on subpopulations known to posses high levels of anxiety and poor exercise self-efficacy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/2422 |
| Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Creators | Blacklock, Rachel |
| Contributors | Rhodes, Ryan E. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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