Longitudinal assessment of post-surgical physical activity in endometrial and ovarian cancer patients

Abstract

ObjectivePhysical activity plays a key role in cancer survivorship. The purpose of this investigation was to (a) describe the post-surgical physical activity trajectories of endometrial (n = 65) and ovarian (n = 31) cancer patients and (b) identify clinical and demographic predictors of physical activity over time.Methods96 participants wore an Actiwatch accelerometer for three days at each of three time points (one week, one month and four months) after surgical intervention for their endometrial or ovarian cancer diagnosis. Analyses were conducted using linear mixed effects regression modeling in SAS 9.4.ResultsFor both tumor types, although physical activity levels increased with time after surgery, even at four months patients were performing only a small fraction of the 150 minutes of recommended weekly moderate to vigorous physical activity. At 1 week, subjects were completing on average 14 minutes/week (SD = 4) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, compared to 14 minutes/week (SD = 2) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at four months post-surgery (p < .05). Better self-rated health was associated with higher physical activity (p = 0.02) in endometrial cancer survivors only. BMI, age, surgery type and use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were not associated with activity over time.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that physical activity levels are different for those with better self-rated health, but those individuals are still insufficiently active. This study adds new information describing the trajectories and variables that influence physical activity in gynecologic cancer survivors after surgery and highlights the need for health promotion interventions in this population.

Functional recovery after discharge in enhanced recovery video‐assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy: a pilot prospective cohort study

“…Interestingly, despite being a different population, such as having lung cancer, pre‐operative physical activity assessed by the same equipment was similar to patients having enhanced recovery after hip and knee arthroplasty [9, 13]. Similarly, postoperative activity in our cohort of patients was comparable with those after endometrial and ovarian cancer surgery, with very low‐light intensity activities in the first week after surgery [14].…”

Wearable devices for patient monitoring in the early postoperative period: a literature review

“…The value of longer-term postoperative monitoring may also be assessed, possibly through discrete devices or by using wearable devices already used by consumers, which may additionally enhance patient compliance. This is particularly important given the findings of Gorzelitz et al (58) and Carmichael et al (54) who reported impaired activity levels at 4 months and at 28 days postoperatively, respectively. However, the specificity of their relatively well-educated, wealthy female cohort with gynaecologic cancer limits their external validity.…”

Adherence to a lower versus higher intensity physical activity intervention in the Breast Cancer & Physical Activity Level (BC-PAL) Trial

“…The recent rise in popularity of commercially available activity trackers provides an opportunity to use these devices to promote PA behavior change, as well as to continuously and objectively measure PA levels as an indicator of intervention adherence [47]. The use of activity trackers may be particularly relevant to promote PA participation in cancer survivors given the relatively low levels of PA that have been recently reported in this population [72,73,74,75]. Indeed, cancer survivors have expressed an interest in using activity trackers to self-monitor PA [76,77,78].…”