Journal of pediatric oncology nursing : official journal of the Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses
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J Pediatr Oncol Nurs · Jan 2016
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialYoga for Children and Adolescents After Completing Cancer Treatment.
Survivors of childhood cancer may experience persistent symptoms, including fatigue, sleep disturbance, and balance impairment. Yoga is a complementary therapy that improves fatigue, sleep, and quality of life in adult cancer survivors. Using a one group, repeated measures design, we evaluated the feasibility of a yoga program and assessed if cancer survivor participants ages 10 to 17 years (n = 13) had significantly less fatigue and anxiety, and better balance and sleep, after a 6-week yoga intervention compared with a 6-week pre-intervention wait period. ⋯ After the 6-week yoga program, children (n = 7) had a significant decrease in anxiety score (P = .04) while adolescent scores (n = 7) showed a decreasing trend (P = .10). Scores for fatigue, sleep, and balance remained stable post-intervention. Fatigue and balance scores were below norms for health children/adolescents while sleep and anxiety scores were similar to healthy peers.