|
|||||
|
|
||||||
Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 25, No 17 (June 10), 2007: pp. 2352-2359 © 2007 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2006.07.9988 Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of Print Materials and Step Pedometers on Physical Activity and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors
From the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, Centre for Health Promotion Studies, School of Public Health, and Department of Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Address reprint requests to Kerry S. Courneya, PhD, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, E-488 Van Vliet Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G-2H9, Canada; e-mail: kerry.courneya{at}ualberta.ca
Purpose To determine the effects of breast cancerspecific print materials and step pedometers on physical activity (PA) and quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer survivors. Patients and Methods Breast cancer survivors (N = 377) were randomly assigned to receive one of the following: a standard public health recommendation for PA, previously developed breast cancerspecific PA print materials, a step pedometer, or a combination of breast cancerspecific print materials and step pedometers. The primary outcome was self-reported moderate/vigorous PA minutes per week. Secondary outcomes were QoL (Functional Assessment of Cancer TherapyBreast), fatigue, self-reported brisk walking, and objective step counts. Assessments were conducted at baseline and postintervention (12 weeks). Results Attrition was 10.3% (39 of 377). On the basis of linear mixed-model analyses, PA increased by 30 minutes/week in the standard recommendation group compared with 70 minutes/week in the print material group (mean difference, 39 minutes/week; 95% CI = 10 to 89; d = 0.25; P = .117), 89 minutes/week in the pedometer group (mean difference, 59 minutes/week; 95% CI, 11 to 108; d = 0.38; P = .017), and 87 minutes/week in the combined group (mean difference, 57 minutes/week; 95% CI, 8 to 106; d = 0.37; P = .022). For brisk walking minutes/week, all three intervention groups reported significantly greater increases than the standard recommendation group. The combined group also reported significantly improved QoL (mean difference, 5.8; 95% CI, 2.0 to 9.6; d = 0.33; P = .003) and reduced fatigue (mean difference, 2.3; 95% CI, 0.0 to 4.7; d = 0.25; P = .052) compared with the standard recommendation group. Conclusion Breast cancerspecific PA print materials and pedometers may be effective strategies for increasing PA and QoL in breast cancer survivors. A combined approach appears to be optimal. Clinical Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00221221
Breast cancer and its treatments are often associated with negative adverse effects that affect quality of life (QoL)1,2 and may persist even years after treatment(s).3-5 One intervention that has been found to enhance psychosocial and physical outcomes in breast cancer survivors is physical activity (PA).6-9 A recent prospective cohort study of almost 3,000 breast cancer survivors reported that higher levels of PA were associated with reduced risks of breast cancer death and breast cancer recurrence.10 Despite the benefits of PA, the majority of breast cancer survivors are not meeting public health guidelines.11-14 Given these findings, interventions to increase PA in breast cancer survivors are warranted. Here, we report results from the Activity Promotion trial. The Activity Promotion trial was a randomized controlled trial designed to determine the effects of breast cancerspecific PA print materials (PM), a step pedometer (PED), or their combination (COM), on self-reported PA and QoL in breast cancer survivors. The primary outcome was change in self-reported moderate/vigorous PA between baseline and postintervention (ie, 12 weeks). Secondary outcomes were changes in self-reported QoL, fatigue, brisk walking, and objective step counts. We hypothesized that survivors in the PM, PED, and COM groups would report greater increases in self-reported PA and QoL compared with survivors receiving a standard PA recommendation (SR), and that survivors in the COM group would report the greatest increases.
Setting and Participants The trial was conducted at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). Ethical clearance was received from the Alberta Cancer Board and the University of Alberta. Eligibility criteria included histologically confirmed stage I to IIIa breast cancer, physician approval, freedom from chronic medical and orthopedic conditions that would preclude PA (eg, congestive heart failure, or recent knee or hip replacement), English as spoken language, completion of adjuvant therapy except hormone therapy, and absence of current breast cancer.
Design and Recruitment
Random Assignment to Groups
Intervention Groups
Measures Adherence to the guidebook was assessed by asking survivors how many times they read the entire guidebook and how long they spent reading the guidebook. Survivors that received a guidebook and completed the trial (ie, n = 163) were asked if they found the guidebook helpful, if the information about PA was informative, if the guidebook helped to overcome barriers, and whether setting goals was effective in helping increase PA. Survivors indicated their responses on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ([not at all]) to 5 ([very much]). We report the average response for the entire sample as well as the percentage of survivors that indicated a score of at least 3 ([somewhat]) on the Likert scale. Self-report PA was assessed by the leisure score index (LSI) of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire.16 The LSI contains three questions that assess the average frequency of mild, moderate, and strenuous exercise during free time in a typical week in the last month. We modified the LSI so that average duration was also provided. For the present study, we calculated the total minutes of moderate plus strenuous exercise for each of the two time periods (ie, baseline and postintervention). An independent evaluation of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire found its reliability to compare favorably to nine other self-report measures of exercise based on various criteria including test-retest scores, objective activity monitors, and fitness indices. The LSI demonstrated a 1-month test-retest reliability of 0.62 and concurrent validity coefficients of 0.32 with another objective indicator (ie, accelerometer), 0.56 maximum oxygen consumption (as measured by expired gases), and 0.43 with percent body fat (as measured by hydrostatic weighing).17 We also collected self-report data on brisk walking using the LSI format. The item assessed the average frequency and duration of brisk walking (defined as [walking like you were late for an appointment]) during a typical week in the last month. Objective walking behavior was assessed via a 7-day step test using the Digi-Walker pedometer. Survivors completed this assessment at baseline and once again at 12 weeks (ie, postintervention). During the 7 days, survivors recorded their daily step counts at the end of the day, and reset the pedometer to zero each morning. QoL was assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer TherapyBreast (FACT-B) scale.18,19 Fatigue was assessed using the Fatigue Scale20 from the FACT measurement system. On the QoL and fatigue scales, higher scores represent better QoL/fatigue or less severe symptoms.
Sample Size Calculation and Statistical Analyses
Flow of Participants Through the Trial Figure 1 shows the flow of participants through the trial. Because of the high level of interest, we randomly assigned 377 participants instead of our planned 252. Retention for this study was 89.7% (338 of 377) and did not differ among groups (P = .39).
Baseline Characteristics and Sample Generalizability Baseline characteristics for all randomly assigned survivors are listed in Table 1. The groups were balanced on all study measures except the PED group had a higher proportion of postmenopausal survivors (P = .017). To examine the representativeness of our sample, we compared our sample of survivors (n = 377) to nonparticipants (n = 1,213) on available medical variables (months since diagnosis, morphology, stage, and treatment[s] received). Study participants were on average 11 months more proximal to their date of diagnosis. Furthermore, a greater proportion of study participants received chemotherapy (54%) than nonparticipants (41%). We also compared survivors who completed the trial (n = 338) versus noncompleters (n = 39) on sociodemographic (ie, age, education, income, employment, ethnicity, residence) and medical variables (ie, months since diagnosis, breast cancer stage, treatment[s] received, BMI). There were no significant differences on any variable.
Adherence to the Intervention Materials Survivors in the two groups that received PED as an intervention (ie, COM and PED; n = 187) recorded their pedometer steps on 83.3% (70 of 84) of study days. Survivors in the two groups that received PM (ie, COM and PM; n = 163) reported reading the entire PM an average of 2.1 times for an average of 113 minutes.
Evaluation of the Physical Activity Guide
Changes in Self-Reported Moderate/Vigorous Physical Activity
Changes in Self-Reported and Objectively Measured Walking Behavior Self-reported brisk walking minutes did not change (ie, zero change) in the SR group compared with an increase of 72 minutes/week in the PM group (mean difference, 72 minutes/week; 95% CI, 20 to 123; d = 0.48; P = .006), 93 minutes/week in the PED group (mean difference, 94 minutes/week; 95% CI, 43 to 144; d = 0.62; P = .000), and 58 minutes/week in the COM group (mean difference, 58 minutes/week; 95% CI, 6 to 109; d = 0.39; P = .028). There were no differences between any of the groups on objectively measured steps per day.
Changes in QoL
As hypothesized, we found that all three intervention groups (ie, PM, PED, and COM) reported greater increases in self-reported PA and/or brisk walking than the SR group. The COM group, however, was not significantly more active than the PM or PED groups. There were no differences in objective walking behavior across the groups. For our second hypothesis, we found that survivors in the COM group reported significantly greater improvements in QoL and fatigue than survivors in the SR group. The strengths of our trial include that it is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, to examine the effects of PM and pedometers on self-reported PA and QoL in breast cancer survivors; the randomized controlled trial design; the use of an SR as our comparison group; the use of a theoretically based and previously evaluated PM intervention; high fidelity to the intervention materials; the large sample size; and minimal loss to follow-up. Our study was limited by the self-report of PA and the failure to blind survivors from their pedometer step count during baseline and postintervention testing. Moreover, given the 22 secondary comparisons, our study is subject to one false discovery by chance if all of these comparisons were actually null. Finally, given that our study was conducted from July to October, it is unknown if the intervention would be equally effective during the winter months. In our study, survivors in the PM, PED, and COM intervention groups, compared with the SR group, increased their moderate to vigorous PA minutes/week by about 40 to 60 minutes/week and their brisk walking by about 60 to 90 minutes/week. In other populations, research examining print-mediated PA interventions also has provided evidence of their efficacy and efficiency.25-28 However, few studies have focused on cancer survivors. Jones et al29 examined the effects of an oncologist's recommendation to exercise on self-reported PA behavior in breast cancer survivors beginning adjuvant treatment. Results indicated that breast cancer survivors receiving a recommendation reported significantly higher self-reported PA (ie, approximately 30 min/wk) over a 5-week period than those not receiving a recommendation. Most comparable to our study, Demark-Wahnefried et al30 examined the effects of a home-based diet and exercise program delivered via telephone counseling and print materials in a mixed sample of 182 older breast and prostate cancer survivors. Results showed a significant improvement in self-reported diet quality but not in self-reported PA or QoL over a 6-month intervention period and a 6-month follow-up. Reasons for the difference in the PA findings between the two studies could be due to the use of different self-report measures of PA (the LSI versus the Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors), different theoretical models to develop intervention materials (the theory of planned behavior v social cognitive theory and the transtheoretical model), our larger sample size (377 v 182), our shorter intervention period (3 v 6 months), our more homogeneous sample (breast cancer survivors v breast and prostate combined), and/or our younger sample (58 v 72 years old). In any case, our data suggest that simple and low-cost tools such as breast cancerspecific PM and/or objective PA monitoring devices may help breast cancer survivors increase their PA. We found no change in objectively measured walking across all four groups. Pinto et al31 found similar results in that their home-based PA intervention did not demonstrate significant effects on objective accelerometer data, whereas self-reported PA did increase. Pedometer-based interventions have yielded positive changes in pedometer step counts in individuals with type II diabetes32 and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease33; however, these interventions included other behavior change strategies to complement the pedometer (eg, telephone counseling, meetings). There are at least two possible explanations for the null effect of our interventions on step counts compared with self-report brisk walking. First, survivors in our study were not advised to achieve a specific step count (ie, 10,000 steps) or to increase their number of steps per day. Given that all survivors were encouraged to engage in PA at least at a moderate intensity level, it is possible that survivors replaced light/casual walking steps with more moderate or purposeful steps to achieve the moderate intensity recommendation. Second, it is possible that our 7-day monitoring period at baseline and postintervention may not have been representative of PA during the entire 12-week intervention. The likelihood that self-report or social desirability bias affected responses on the self-report PA questionnaires is of concern. If a response bias were present, however, we would have expected this bias across all four groups given that all groups were asked to increase PA and to provide self-report assessments of PA. Indeed, the 30-minute increase in PA we observed in the SR group (ie, control) may partly reflect this bias, which is why we selected an SR group as our comparison group. Moreover, recent research has suggested that there is minimal evidence of social desirability for the self-report exercise scale that we used.34 Finally, poor compliance with the objective measure is also unlikely to explain this difference because we observed extremely high compliance with the 7-day baseline and postintervention objective measurements. Specifically, 97.3% (367 of 377) and 97.0% (328 of 338) of participants recorded their steps on all 7 monitoring days at baseline and postintervention, respectively. The second main finding of our trial was that the COM intervention had a beneficial effect on QoL and fatigue compared with the SR group. The improvements in the COM group approached the minimal thresholds for clinically important differences for the FACT-B and Fatigue Scale (ie, 7.0 and 3.0 points, respectively)35,36 and yielded standardized effect sizes in the small to moderate range. Given that our sample was on average 39 months post-treatment, it is likely that some items on the FACT-B may no longer be relevant (eg, [I have nausea]). Therefore, other QoL scales may be more sensitive to detecting changes in QoL in long-term breast cancer survivors (eg, Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors37). Our data suggest that PA behavior change modalities such as PM and a step pedometer may have beneficial effects on self-reported PA and QoL in breast cancer survivors. Combining PM with a pedometer showed the greatest benefits for QoL and fatigue. Additional research should determine if other distance-based strategies are effective in assisting survivors in becoming more physically active. The distance-based option is low cost (eg, print materials cost $14.00 US per participant and pedometers cost $16.00 US per participant) and may have greater generalizability and ecologic validity for long-term cancer survivors than clinic-based interventions. These programs can be implemented in most communities and may consequently benefit the greatest number of breast cancer survivors.
The author(s) indicated no potential conflicts of interest.
Conception and design: Jeffrey K.H. Vallance Financial support: Kerry S. Courneya Administrative support: John R. Mackey Provision of study materials or patients: John R. Mackey Collection and assembly of data: Jeffrey K.H. Vallance Data analysis and interpretation: Jeffrey K.H. Vallance, Kerry S. Courneya, Yutaka Yasui Manuscript writing: Jeffrey K.H. Vallance, Kerry S. Courneya, Ronald C. Plotnikoff, John R. Mackey Final approval of manuscript: Jeffrey K.H. Vallance, Kerry S. Courneya, Ronald C. Plotnikoff, John R. Mackey
We thank Celeste Lavallee, BSc, and Ben Wilson, BPE, for their assistance in assessment and data management.
Supported by a research team grant from the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) with funds from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and the CCS/NCIC Sociobehavioral Cancer Research Network. At the time of this study, J.K.H.V. was supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a Doctoral Incentive Award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR). K.S.C. is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program. R.C.P. is supported by Salary Awards from CIHR and AHFMR. Y.Y. is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program and a Salary Award from AHFMR. Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.
1. Ganz PA, Kwan L, Stanton AL, et al: Quality of life at the end of primary treatment of breast cancer: First results from the moving beyond cancer randomized trial. J Natl Cancer Inst 96:376-387, 2004 2. Shapiro CL, Recht A: Side effects of adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. N Engl J Med 344:1997-2008, 2001 3. Ganz PA: Impact of tamoxifen adjuvant therapy on symptoms, functioning, and quality of life. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 30:130-134, 2001 4. Ganz PA, Desmond KA, Leedham B, et al: Quality of life in long-term, disease-free survivors of breast cancer: A follow-up study. J Natl Cancer Inst 94:39-49, 2002 5. Ganz PA, Guadagnoli E, Landrum MB, et al: Breast cancer in older women: Quality of life and psychosocial adjustment in the 15 months after diagnosis. J Clin Oncol 21:4027-4033, 2003 6. Knols R, Aaronson NK, Uebelhart D, et al: Physical exercise in cancer patients during and after medical treatment: A systematic review of randomized and controlled clinical trials. J Clin Oncol 23:3830-3842, 2005 7. McNeely ML, Campbell KL, Rowe BH, et al: A meta-analysis of exercise interventions in breast cancer patients and survivors. CMAJ 175:34-41, 2006 8. Schmitz KH, Holtzman J, Courneya KS, et al: Controlled physical activity trials in cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14:1588-1595, 2005 9. Courneya KS, Mackey JR, Bell GJ, et al: Randomized controlled trial of exercise training in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors: Cardiopulmonary and quality of life outcomes. J Clin Oncol 21:1660-1668, 2003 10. Holmes MD, Chen WY, Feskanich D, et al: Physical activity and survival after breast cancer diagnosis. JAMA 293:2479-2486, 2005 11. Pate RR, Pratt M, Blair SN, et al: Physical activity and public health: A recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine. JAMA 273:402-407, 1995 12. Bellizzi KM, Rowland JH, Jeffery DD, et al: Health behaviors of cancer survivors: Examining opportunities for cancer control intervention. J Clin Oncol 23:8884-8893, 2005 13. Irwin ML, Crumley D, McTiernan A, et al: Physical activity levels before and after a diagnosis of breast carcinoma: The Health, Eating, Activity, and Lifestyle (HEAL) study. Cancer 97:1746-1757, 2003[CrossRef][Medline] 14. Irwin ML, McTiernan A, Bernstein L, et al: Physical activity levels among breast cancer survivors. Med Sci Sports Exerc 36:1484-1491, 2004 15. Vallance JKH, Courneya KS, Taylor LM, et al: Development and evaluation of a theory-based physical activity guide for breast cancer survivors. Health Educ Behav [epub ahead of print on July 21, 2006] 16. Godin G, Shephard RJ: A simple method to assess exercise behavior in the community. Can J Appl Sport Sci 10:141-146, 1985[Medline] 17. Jacobs DR Jr, Ainsworth BE, Hartman TJ, et al: A simultaneous evaluation of 10 commonly used physical activity questionnaires. Med Sci Sport Exerc 25:81-91, 1993[CrossRef][Medline] 18. Brady MJ, Cella DF, Mo F, et al: Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast quality-of-life instrument. J Clin Oncol 15:974-986, 1997 19. Cella DF, Tulsky DS, Gray G, et al: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale: Development and validation of the general measure. J Clin Oncol 11:570-579, 1993 20. Cella D: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anemia (FACT-An) Scale: A new tool for the assessment of outcomes in cancer anemia and fatigue. Semin Hematol 34:13-19, 1997 (3 suppl 2)[Medline] 21. Newell DJ: Intention-to-treat analysis: Implications for quantitative and qualitative research. Int J Epidemiol 21:837-841, 1992 22. Diggle P, Heagerty P, Liang KY, et al: Analysis of Longitudinal Data (ed 2). New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2002 23. Tabachnik BG, Fidell LS: Using Multivariate Statistics (ed 2). Cambridge, MA, Harper & Row, 1996 24. Cohen J: Statistical Power Analysis in the Behavioral Sciences (ed 2). Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1992 25. Bock BC, Marcus BH, Pinto BM, et al: Maintenance of physical activity following an individualized motivationally tailored intervention. Ann Behav Med 23:79-87, 2001[CrossRef][Medline] 26. Marcus BH, Bock BC, Pinto BM, et al: Efficacy of an individualized, motivationally-tailored physical activity intervention. Ann Behav Med 20:174-180, 1998[Medline] 27. Marshall AL, Bauman AE, Owen N, et al: Population-based randomized controlled trial of a stage-targeted physical activity intervention. Ann Behav Med 25:194-202, 2003[CrossRef][Medline] 28. Marshall AL, Leslie ER, Bauman AE, et al: Print versus website physical activity programs: A randomized trial. Am J Prev Med 25:88-94, 2003[CrossRef][Medline] 29. Jones LW, Courneya KS, Fairey AS, et al: Effects of an oncologist's recommendation to exercise on self-reported exercise behavior in newly diagnosed breast cancer survivors: A single-blind, randomized controlled trial. Ann Behav Med 28:105-113, 2004[CrossRef][Medline] 30. Demark-Wahnefried W, Clipp EC, Morey MC, et al: Lifestyle intervention development study to improve physical function in older adults with cancer: Outcomes from Project LEAD. J Clin Oncol 24:3465-3473, 2006 31. Pinto BM, Frierson GM, Rabin C, et al: Home-based physical activity intervention for breast cancer patients. J Clin Oncol 23:3577-3587, 2005 32. Tudor-Locke C, Bell RC, Myers AM, et al: Controlled outcome evaluation of the First Step Program: A daily physical activity intervention for individuals with type II diabetes. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 28:113-119, 2004[CrossRef][Medline] 33. de Blok BM, de Greef MH, ten Hacken NH, et al: The effects of a lifestyle physical activity counseling program with feedback of a pedometer during pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD: A pilot study. Patient Educ Couns 61:48-55, 2006[CrossRef][Medline] 34. Motl RW, McAuley E, DiStefano C: Is social desirability associated with self-reported physical activity? Prev Med 40:735-739, 2005[CrossRef][Medline] 35. Cella D, Eton DT, Lai JS, et al: Combining anchor and distribution-based methods to derive minimal clinically important differences on the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) anemia and fatigue scales. J Pain Symptom Manage 24:547-561, 2002[CrossRef][Medline] 36. Eton DT, Cella D, Yost KJ, et al: A combination of distribution- and anchor-based approaches determined minimally important differences (MIDs) for four endpoints in a breast cancer scale. J Clin Epidemiol 57:898-910, 2004[CrossRef][Medline] 37. Avis NE, Smith KW, McGraw S, et al: Assessing quality of life in adult cancer survivors (QLACS). Qual Life Res 14:1007-1023, 2005[CrossRef][Medline] Submitted June 26, 2006; accepted January 17, 2007.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2007 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
|