@article{ZetzlPittigRenneretal.2021, author = {Zetzl, Teresa and Pittig, Andre and Renner, Agnes and van Oorschott, Birgitt and Jentschke, Elisabeth}, title = {Yoga therapy to reduce fatigue in cancer: effects of reminder e-mails and long-term efficacy}, series = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, volume = {29}, journal = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, number = {12}, issn = {1433-7339}, doi = {10.1007/s00520-021-06345-z}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268415}, pages = {7725-7735}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Objective To examine the efficacy of reminder e-mails to continue yoga therapy on practice frequency and fatigue in cancer patients and long-term effects of yoga on fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Methology One hundred two cancer patients who completed an 8-week yoga therapy were randomly allocated to two groups: reminder (N = 51) vs. no-reminder group (N = 51). After completing yoga therapy, the reminder group received weekly e-mails for 24 weeks, which reminded them of practicing yoga, whereas the no-reminder group did not. Primary outcomes were fatigue and practice frequency, and long-term outcomes were fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Data were assessed using questionnaires after yoga therapy (T1) and 6 months after completing yoga therapy (T2). Result A significantly stronger reduction of general (p = 0.038, d = 0.42) and emotional fatigue (p = 0.004, d = 0.59) and a higher increase of practice frequency (p = 0.015, d = 0.52) between T1 and T2 were found for the reminder group compared to the no-reminder group. In the mediation model, practice frequency as a mediator partially explained the changes in emotional fatigue (indirect effect B =  - 0.10). Long-term effects of yoga therapy regarding fatigue, depression, and quality of life were found (F > 7.46, p < 0.001, d > 0.54). Conclusion Weekly reminder e-mails after yoga therapy can positively affect general and emotional fatigue and help cancer patients with fatigue establish a regular yoga practice at home. However, higher practice frequency did not lead to higher physical or cognitive fatigue improvement, suggesting other factors that mediate efficacy on physical or cognitive fatigue, such as mindfulness or side effects of therapy.}, language = {en} } @article{ZetzlRennerPittigetal.2021, author = {Zetzl, Teresa and Renner, Agnes and Pittig, Andre and Jentschke, Elisabeth and Roch, Carmen and van Oorschot, Birgitt}, title = {Yoga effectively reduces fatigue and symptoms of depression in patients with different types of cancer}, series = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, volume = {29}, journal = {Supportive Care in Cancer}, issn = {0941-4355}, doi = {10.1007/s00520-020-05794-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-235415}, pages = {2973-2982}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Purpose Examine the effects of an 8-week yoga therapy on fatigue in patients with different types of cancer. Methods A total of 173 cancer patients suffering from mild to severe fatigue were randomly allocated to yoga intervention (n = 84) (IG) versus waitlist control group (CG) (n = 88). Yoga therapy consisted of eight weekly sessions with 60 min each. The primary outcome was self-reported fatigue symptoms. Secondary outcomes were symptoms of depression and quality of life (QoL). Data were assessed using questionnaires before (T0) and after yoga therapy for IG versus waiting period for CG (T1). Results A stronger reduction of general fatigue (P = .033), physical fatigue (P = .048), and depression (P < .001) as well as a stronger increase in QoL (P = .002) was found for patients who attended 7 or 8 sessions compared with controls. Within the yoga group, both higher attendance rate and lower T0-fatigue were significant predictors of lower T1-fatigue (P ≤ .001). Exploratory results revealed that women with breast cancer report a higher reduction of fatigue than women with other types of cancer (P = .016) after yoga therapy. Conclusion The findings support the assumption that yoga therapy is useful to reduce cancer-related fatigue, especially for the physical aspects of fatigue. Women with breast cancer seem to benefit most, and higher attendance rate results in greater reduction of fatigue. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00016034}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zetzl2021, author = {Zetzl, Teresa Margarete}, title = {Cancer-related fatigue intervention}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-25166}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-251662}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The incidence of cancer cases is rising steadily, while improved early detection and new cancer-specific therapies are reducing the mortality rate. In addition to curing cancer or prolonging life, increasing the quality of life is thus an important goal of oncology, which is why the burdens of cancer and treatment are becoming more important. A common side effect of cancer and its therapy is cancer-related fatigue, a tiredness that manifests itself on physical, emotional and cognitive levels and is not in proportion to previous physical efforts. Since the etiology of fatigue has not yet been fully clarified, symptom-oriented therapy is preferable to cause-specific therapy. In addition to activity management, sleep hygiene, and cognitive behavioral therapy, mind-body interventions such as yoga are recommended for reducing fatigue. Previous studies with small sample sizes were able to examine the efficacy of yoga regarding fatigue predominantly in patients with breast cancer. Long-term effects of yoga have rarely been studied and there have been no attempts to increase long-term effects through interventions such as reminder e-mails. This dissertation takes a closer look at these mentioned aspects of the study sample and long-term effects. An 8-week randomized controlled yoga intervention was conducted, including patients with different cancer types reporting mild to severe fatigue. Following the 8-week yoga therapy, a randomized group of participants received weekly reminder e-mails for 6 months for regular yoga practice, whereas the control group did not receive reminder e-mails. The first paper is a protocol article, which addresses the design and planned implementation of the research project this dissertation is based upon. This serves to ensure better replicability and comparability with other yoga studies. Due to a very low consent rate of patients in the pilot phase, it was necessary to deviate from the protocol article in the actual implementation and the planned inclusion criterion of fatigue >5 was reduced to fatigue >1. The second paper examines the efficacy of the eight-week yoga intervention. Patients in the intervention group who participated in the yoga classes seven times or more showed a significantly greater reduction in general and physical fatigue than those who participated less often. The efficacy of yoga was related to the number of attended yoga sessions. Women with breast cancer who participated in yoga reported greater reductions in fatigue than women with other cancer types. There was also an improvement for depression and quality of life after eight weeks of yoga therapy compared to no yoga therapy. These results imply that yoga is helpful in reducing depression and cancer-related fatigue, especially in terms of physical aspects and improving quality of life. The third paper focuses on the efficacy of reminder e-mails in terms of fatigue and practice frequency. Patients who received reminder e-mails reported greater reductions in general and emotional fatigue, as well as significant increases in practice frequency, compared to patients who did not receive reminder e-mails. Compared to fatigue scores before yoga, significantly lower fatigue and depression scores and higher quality of life were reported after yoga therapy and at follow-up six months later. Weekly e-mail reminders after yoga therapy may have positive effects on general and emotional fatigue and help cancer patients with fatigue establish a regular yoga practice at home. However, higher practice frequency did not lead to higher improvement in physical fatigue as found in Paper 2. This may indicate other factors that influence the efficacy of yoga practice on physical fatigue, such as mindfulness or side effects of therapy. This research project provides insight into the efficacy of yoga therapy for oncology patients with fatigue. It is important that such interventions be offered early, while fatigue symptoms are not too severe. Regular guided yoga practice can reduce physical fatigue, but subsequent yoga practice at home does not further reduce physical fatigue. Reminder emails after completed yoga therapy could only reduce patients' emotional fatigue. It may be that physical fatigue was reduced as much as possible by the previous yoga therapy and that there was a floor effect, or it may be that reminder emails are not suitable as an intervention to reduce physical fatigue at all. Further research is needed to examine the mechanisms of the different interventions in more detail and to find appropriate interventions that reduce all levels of fatigue equally.}, subject = {Erm{\"u}dungssyndrom}, language = {en} }