A Pilot Exercise Intervention to Enhance Fitness and Quality of Life among African American and White Colorectal Cancer Survivors

Abstract

As the third most common occurring malignancy and 3rd leading cause of cancer‐related mortality, colorectal cancer (CRC) represents an important public health concern. Substantial disparities exist for CRC with elevated incidence and relative survival rate among African Americans (AA) compared to Caucasians (C).PurposeTo determine the feasibility of recruiting AA and C subjects into a training intervention study to improve physiologic and quality of life measures.MethodsSubjects interested in participation were sent letters describing the study, they were then called and if interested, pre‐screened over the phone prior to consenting to assess eligibility. If deemed potentially eligible based on the pre‐screening, subjects then completed two screening visits followed by twelve weeks of progressive exercise training on a cycle ergometer.ResultsOut of the 241 letters sent, AA and C subjects had a 86% (n=112) and 96.7% (n=118) attrition rate for phone screening. Of those screened, AA and C had 66.7% (n=12) and 75% (n=3) that were eligible to begin the training. After ten months of recruitment, there have been two (1.5 % of those sent letters) AA subjects that have completed the training and one C (0.8% of those sent letters) subject.ConclusionSubject recruitment for a twelve week intervention training study has a very high attrition rate for both AA and C. Completion of a twelve week training after recruitment may be more difficult for African Americans compared to Caucasians.