Malnutrition and associated muscle wasting are common health problems among pediatric cancer patients. However, the role of dietary counseling and physical exercise prescription intervention on both nutritional status and muscle health is not well documented in pediatric cancer patients, especially in those from low-and middle-income countries.
This study will use quasi-experimental study design that will apply waiting list control and intervention groups to determine the effect of dietary counseling physical exercise prescription on the nutritional status and muscle wasting/sarcopenia among pediatric cancer patients in the age range of 5-18 years receiving cancer treatment at Jimma Medical Center Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Unit (JMC-PHOU). The study participants will be enrolled prospectively according their clinical visit. The participants will be categorized as intervention and awaiting list control groups. The intervention group received dietary counseling by using healthy eating plate as guide and motivational interview as counseling strategy for three consecutive months. In addition to dietary counseling the intervention group will receive three days per week, two sessions a day and 30 minutes per session aerobic(20 minutes per session) and resistance(10 minutes per session) physical exercise prescription. The waiting list control group will receive the same intervention three months later. The sample size was estimated by considering study power of and clinically significant effect size to 104 total sample sizes (i.e. 52 cases per each group). Data will be analyzed by paired sample t-test using IBM SPSS version 25. Statistical significance will be set at 5% with 95% confidence interval (CI). The study result will be reported in mean ±SD and t(df), p-value.