EveryBody Needs Time to Play!: Implementing a Physical Activity and Nutrition program for Cancer Survivors

The health-related quality of life model describes a bidirectional relationship between individual-micro and systemic-macro level effects on quality of life. Systemic cultural and demographic variables act on the general health, cancer-related health, health efficacy and psychological well-being of the individual, and likewise, these components impact culture. Such interactions dictate the health-related quality of life of the individual. Physical activity is a variable often used to assess the probability of survivorship and the health related-quality of life of an individual with cancer. Physical activity interventions post-diagosis are rarely implemented and struggle with sample size. The EveryBody Needs Time to Play! Program is a culturally-relevant movement based program that engages individuals through exercise from various dance genres. Information about the physiology of the body is shared thoughout the intervention in addition to a 10-minute nutrition class. The program is designed to increase ones psychological well-being by decreasing depression and anxiety. The intervention experienced problems with fidelity as it was difficult to maintain weekly participants. After making necessary adjustments, the program was more successful once it was offered monthly. While programmatic complications prevented vital data collection, it was determined through survey methods that all participants/cancer survivors felt this program increased their mood and knowledge of healthy foods and physical activity options. This presentation will discuss lessons learned and approaches to implementation that can be adopted by organizations.