ABSTRACT
Introduction: Fatigue is one of the most common problems experienced by the cancer patients. It is a normal and necessary instrument of physiologic self-regulation and protects the body from exaggerated or harmful efforts. It becomes pathologic when it appears during normal activities and does not improve after rest. It is one of the prevalent symptoms of the patients receiving radiation therapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy or biological response modifiers. Fatigue is inversely associated with activity level and functional capacity. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of the pilates based group therapy on the reduction of the levels of fatigue, symptom burden and the improvement in the domain the global functioning, functional component of the EORTC QLQ C30. Materials and methods: Interventional experimental Randomized control trial was used in this study. The study included brain tumor survivors both genders (male and female) with age group ranging from 18 – 65 and completion of the treatment with surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy with or without current hormone treatment and overall kps score >70 were randomly allocated into two groups. Group A and Group B. Group A performed pilates exercises and Group B performed conventional therapy which includes ROM exercises and strengthening exercises to the upper limb, lower limb back and both the groups advised walking for 15 min daily. Sathish Kumar Jakkula, Sai Gayathri Mangavelli, Vani Reddy Manchi, Amita Samal, K. Sukavya Reddy. Efficacy of pilates based group therapy on fatigue and quality of life in brain tumor survivors – A randomized control trial. IAIM, 2019; 6(10): 74-81. Page 75 Results: The experimental group A performing a pilates exercises showed statistically significant improvement in the reduction of the fatigue levels and the symptom burden and improvement in the global functioning and functional components of the EORTC QLQ C30 Questionnaire with the probability of <0.005. Conclusion: Pilates based group therapy found to be effective in reducing fatigue levels and symptom burden there by improving the quality of life in brain tumor survivors according to the statistical data available.