Maintenance of effects of a home-based physical activity program among breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Some positive effects of a home-based PA intervention for breast cancer patients were maintained at 6 and 9 months.

Physical Activity and Health Outcomes Three Months After Completing a Physical Activity Behavior Change Intervention: Persistent and Delayed Effects

“…Nevertheless, we have previously reported that participants rarely engaged in exercise types other than walking and selfreported leisure activity immediately postintervention increased, suggesting that improvements in objective activity may have been due, at least in part, to increases in leisure activity (11). With regard to the magnitude of our intervention effect months after completion, direct comparison to other studies is difficult because only two studies report longer term adherence as the change in minutes of activity (8,21). Specifically, mean change for the intervention versus control group in self-report weekly minutes has been noted to be 60 to 94 minutes (8,21).…”

“…It is noteworthy that our study showed a persistent, statistically significant improvement in objective physical activity. Few randomized trials in cancer survivors have shown statistically significant improvements in activity months after completing a behavior change intervention (8,9), and no prior study has shown sustained benefit based on objective monitoring. Although the primary advantage of objectively measuring physical activity is the minimization of overreporting activity levels, we acknowledge that accelerometers do not record activities such as bicycling or swimming and do not differentiate between occupational and leisure activity.…”

“…Behavior change interventions are needed to reduce physical inactivity and, fortunately, a cancer diagnosis may be a ''teachable moment'' when patients are more motivated and open to participation in such interventions (6). Multiple randomized trials of physical activity behavior change studies in cancer survivors have been reported with eight focusing on breast cancer, one focusing on prostate cancer, one focusing on endometrial cancer, and four focusing on mixed cancer types (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). It is encouraging that 10 of these studies have shown significant improvements in physical activity, and 2 of the 4 without activity increases reported improvements in exercise stage of change.…”

“…Furthermore, does the physical activity increase noted immediately postintervention persist after the intervention is completed? Although long-term adherence after intervention completion is of substantial importance, few behavior change studies in cancer survivors of any type have reported long-term adherence results (8,9,12,15,21) with only two demonstrating a statistically significant improvement months after intervention completion (8,9). It is also noteworthy that no prior randomized trial of a behavior change intervention in cancer survivors has used an objective measure of physical activity to assess long-term adherence.…”

“…Of the four prior studies reporting longer term health outcomes [i.e., quality of life, depression, anxiety, pain, and body mass index (BMI)], only one has confirmed sustained improvements (i.e., fatigue; refs. 8,12,15,21).…”