Health Behaviors in Patients Who Have Finished Treatment for Stage I, Stage II, or Stage III Colorectal Cancer

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

- To characterize patterns and identify predictors of post-treatment physical activity and
dietary changes made by colorectal cancer survivors.

Secondary

- To identify the affective and cognitive effects of post-treatment physical activity and
dietary changes in these patients.

- To identify these patients' preferences regarding diet and physical activity health
promotion programs.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients complete surveys at baseline and at 3 and 6 months. A randomly selected subset of 84
patients also receive an activity monitor to be use at each of the 3 time points. The
acceptability of their use is assessed and whether activity levels change across the 3 time
points and the extent to which they are convergent with self-reported physical activity are
examined.

During each survey, questionnaires are administered to assess the following areas:
physical/medical characteristics (self-reported), self-efficacy for physical activity, fruit
and vegetable consumption, and dietary fat intake; outcome expectations for physical
activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and dietary fat intake; physical activity and diet
behavioral self-regulation; illness representations (causal attributions and controllability
of recurrence); perceived risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence; emotional
representations of CRC (cancer-related anxiety and worry about cancer recurrence); healthcare
provider recommendations to alter physical activity and dietary intake; social influence from
important others; current physical activity and dietary intake; and diet and physical
activity program preferences. Patients who received the activity monitor are asked feedback
on acceptability of them.

Measures of sociodemographics and disease/treatment characteristics (via medical chart
review) are recorded.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Diagnosis of localized or regional colorectal cancer

- Stage I, II, or III disease

- Completed treatment within the past 6 weeks

- No previous diagnosis of colorectal cancer

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- English speaking

- No current evidence of neoplastic disease except for nonmelanoma skin cancer

- No evidence of severe cognitive impairment

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- See Disease Characteristics