Two studies were conducted. A longitudinal study (12 months) was designed to describe
the physiological and psychological recovery patterns in a group of pediatric patients who
were recently treated for a malignancy. An intervention program (12 week rehabilitation
exercise program), was used to separate the effects of deconditioning from the disease
and/or its treatment in children who had been out of treatment for a malignancy for at least
one year. In the twelve month study, 10 pediatric patients recently out of treatment and 10
healthy controls were tested at 0, 6, 12 weeks and 6 and 12 months. In the twelve week
study, 18 patients and 52 healthy controls were assigned to an exercise or no exercise
group and were tested at 0, 6 and 12 weeks. At each test session, all subjects were tested
for measures of height, weight, sum of skin folds, blood pressure, and pulmonary function.
Each subject completed a 30s Wingate test on a cycle ergometer, for measures of
anaerobic capacity, and a maximal oxygen consumption test (15 or 20 W/min, ramp
protocol) to volitional fatigue for measures of aerobic fitness. A measurement of self-esteem
and self-confidence were tested using the Harter scale Self-Perception Profile for
Children and Adolescents. All subjects were also evaluated at 0 and 12 weeks (again at 6
and 12 months in the 12 month study) using Doppler and M-mode echocardiography to
note cardiovascular changes during semi-supine exercise. Results of both studies show no
significant differences between the patients and the healthy controls in any of the
physiology, psychology, or cardiology measures. The patients did demonstrate a similar
response to exercise in many measures but their values were reduced in magnitude. The
patients consistently performed below both the healthy controls in all physiological and
cardiology measures but these trends were not statistically significant. It would appear that
the majority of children and adolescent patients who were followed in this study are
functioning remarkably well both physically and psychologically compared to their healthy
controls. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/9572 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Niesen-Vertommen, Sherri |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 12546245 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
Page generated in 0.0076 seconds