Help You, Help Us

Participation is FREE and by participating in this program, you will learn more about your physical limits and possibly how to extend these limits. Also, you will help Elon University collect vital data and contribute to Elon’s overall education experience!

Our Why

The purpose of this program is to assess how individuals with a history of lung cancer perform on several short tests of balance and gait (e.g., your ability to keep a stable posture and your walking pattern). We are interested in examining how your performance on these tests may also relate to your risk of potentially experiencing a future fall, and what could be done to decrease that risk. All assessment sessions will occur virtually/online, and each should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. You will be asked to fill out several short questionnaires about your health, physical function, and quality of life. In total, they should take approximately 1 hour to complete. You may also have the opportunity to participate in a 4-week guided virtual exercise intervention that aims to improve your balance.

What to Expect

If you decide to participate, you will be asked to:

  • Complete a series of online questionnaires that will provide us with some information about your health, physical function, and various psychosocial aspects of your life. It will take you approximately 1 hour to complete these questionnaires.
  • Attend a pre-assessment meeting with program team members. This meeting will occur via an online video platform such as WebEx, Zoom, etc. During this meeting, we will go over the tests that will be used to assess your balance and gait. This meeting should take approximately 30 minutes.
  • You may also have the opportunity to participate in a guided online exercise intervention, aimed to improve your balance. This intervention would be designed by the program team based on how you performed on the tests of balance and gait. The exercise intervention would involve performing specified sets of exercises several days per week over the course of 4 weeks. At the end of the intervention, you would repeat the assessments of balance and gait in the same manner as you did them initially.

Hear from Participants

These exercises helped me regain and maintain my balance.

Ginny Klopfer

The Team

Daniel Janyska
Associate Researcher

Tyanna Harris
Associate Researcher

Lucas Friess
Associate Researcher

Victoria Garrison
Associate Researcher

Dr. Stephen Bailey
Professor of Physical Therapy Education

Dr. Beth Evans
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Education

Dr. Srikant Vallabhajosula
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Education

This program is being conducted by faculty and students in the Department of Physical Therapy Education in the School of Health Sciences at Elon University. To be eligible for participation, you need to be an adult with a history of lung cancer living in North Carolina. Participation is free of charge, and all activities will occur virtually/online. If you are interested in participating or would like more information, please fill out this form for a member of the program team to contact you at your convenience. Funding for the project is provided by an Access Grant from the Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina.

Elon University School of Health Sciences

Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina