Objective: Given the well-accepted health benefits, it is important to identify scalable ways to support people with long-term conditions (LTCs) to remain physically active. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of digital tools on the maintenance of physical activity (PA) amongst this population.
Methods: Electronic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials investigating the effect of digital tools on PA maintenance at least three months post-intervention compared with a non-digital control in participants with long-term conditions.
Background: Many adults do not meet physical activity recommendations for optimal health, and this is often because people find it difficult to maintain physical activity in the long term. This study focuses on identifying and synthesising factors that may influence the maintenance of physical activity in adults with and without known health conditions.
Method: A systematic review and qualitative synthesis using thematic analysis was conducted.
Background: Group preoperative education is becoming standard care for patients preparing for surgery, alongside optimisation of exercise, diet, and wellbeing. Although patient education is essential, the effectiveness of group education programmes or 'surgery schools' as a means of delivery is unclear. This review examines whether attending group preoperative education improves patient outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This paper describes a conceptual framework of maintenance of physical activity (PA) and its application to future intervention design.
Methods: Evidence from systematic literature reviews and in-depth (N = 27) qualitative interviews with individuals with cancer were used to develop a conceptual framework of long-term physical activity behaviour. Determinants of long-term PA were listed and linked with domains of the Theoretical Domains Framework which in turn were linked to associated behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and finally to proposed mechanisms of action (MoA).
Background: Increasing healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity) can improve cancer survivors' quality of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe evidence to support the benefits of exercise for people living with and beyond cancer is robust. Still, exercise oncology interventions in the United States are only eligible for coverage by third-party payers within the restrictions of cancer rehabilitation settings. Without expanded coverage, access will remain highly inequitable, tending toward the most well-resourced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: With increasing pressure on placement capacity for allied health students, a need for novel and creative means through which students can develop foundational skills and prepare for practice-based learning opportunities has arisen. This study aimed to explore the experiences of domestic and international first-year students completing pre-clinical preparation programs, contrasting between in-person simulation and online options to contribute to best practice evidence for program design and delivery.
Methods: First-year students from physiotherapy, podiatry and occupational therapy self-selected to either a one-weeklong in-person simulation program or an online preparation for placement program.
Background: People with genetic predispositions to cancer are faced with complex health decisions about managing their risk. Decision aids can support informed, values-based decisions, alongside shared decision-making with a clinician. Whilst diagnoses of genetic predispositions to cancer are increasing, there is no scalable decision aid to support these people.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurgical resection remains the primary curative treatment for intra-cavity cancer. Low physical fitness and psychological factors such as depression are predictive of post-operative morbidity, mortality and length of hospital stay. Prolonged post-operative morbidity is associated with persistently elevated risk of premature death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This scoping review aimed to bring together and identify digital tools that support people with one or more long-term conditions to maintain physical activity and describe their components and theoretical underpinnings.
Methods: Searches were conducted in Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline, EMBASE, IEEE Xplore, PsycINFO, Scopus, Google Scholar and clinical trial databases, for studies published between 2009 and 2019, across a range of long-term conditions. Screening and data extraction was undertaken by two independent reviewers and the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Reviews guidelines informed the review's conduct and reporting.
Background: Primary care plays an important role in supporting survivors of cancer; however, support is limited because of practitioners' perceived lack of expertise and time. A digital intervention for survivors of cancer could provide an efficient way for primary care staff to support survivors of cancer without the need to accumulate expertise and skills to help patients make behavior changes; providing very brief support alongside this could maximize adherence to digital interventions. Renewed is a digital intervention that combines web-based behavior change advice with brief health care practitioner support from a nurse or health care assistant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This article focuses on the following:The importance of prehabilitation in people with cancer and the known and hypothesised benefits.Exploration of the principles that can be used when developing services in the absence of a single accepted model of how these services could be established or configured.Description of approaches and learning in the development and implementation of prehabilitation across three different countries: Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, based on the authors' experiences and perspectives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Anesthesiol Rep
January 2022
Purpose Of Review: Patients with cancer who have high levels of psychological distress have poor treatment compliance and worse outcomes. This "review of reviews" provides a narrative synthesis of the impact of psychological prehabilitation interventions on individuals awaiting cancer surgery.
Recent Findings: Twenty reviews of prehabilitation with psychological interventions were identified.
Introduction: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) on individuals with cancer has been profound. It has led to increased anxiety, distress and deconditioning due to reduced physical activity. We aim to investigate whether SafeFit, a multimodal intervention of physical activity, nutrition and psychological support delivered virtually by cancer exercise specialists (CES), can improve physical and emotional functionings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultimodal prehabilitation is increasingly recognized as an important component of the pre-operative pathway in oncology. It aims to optimize physical and psychological health through delivery of a series of tailored interventions including exercise, nutrition, and psychological support. At the core of this prescription is a need for considerable health behavior change, to ensure that patients are engaged with and adhere to these interventions and experience the associated benefits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarlier diagnosis and more effective treatments mean that the estimated number of cancer survivors in the United Kingdom is expected to reach 4 million by 2030. However, there is an increasing realisation that excess body fatness (EBF) is likely to influence the quality of cancer survivorship and disease-free survival. For decades, the discussion of weight management in patients with cancer has been dominated by concerns about unintentional weight loss, low body weight and interventions to increase weight, often re-enforced by the existence of the obesity paradox, which indicates that high body weight is associated with survival benefits for some types of cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: In the last decade, there has been a rapid expansion of physical activity (PA) promotion programmes and interventions targeting people living with and beyond cancer (LWBC). The impact that these initiatives have on long-term maintenance of PA remains under-researched. This study sought to explore the experiences of participants in order to characterise those who have and have not successfully sustained increases in PA following participation in a PA intervention after a diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, and identify barriers and facilitators of this behaviour.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternational evidence-based guidelines support the prescription of exercise for all individuals living with and beyond cancer. This article describes the agenda of the newly formed Moving Through Cancer initiative, which has a primary objective of making exercise standard practice in oncology by 2029.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adherence to smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity (PA) guidelines may improve outcomes for people with a stoma. A better understanding of these behaviours following stoma formation surgery and their experiences and attitudes towards receiving lifestyle advice, could help identify specific gaps and inform interventions going forward. The aim of this study was to describe changes in current lifestyle following stoma formation and to explore concerns, desire for lifestyle information, advice and support among people who have or have had a stoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physical activity can improve health and wellbeing after cancer and may reduce cancer recurrence and mortality. To achieve such long-term benefits cancer survivors must be habitually active. This review evaluates the effectiveness of interventions in supporting maintenance of physical activity behaviour change among adults diagnosed with cancer and explores which intervention components and contextual features are associated with effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: More people are living with the consequences of cancer and comorbidity. We describe frequencies of comorbidities in a colorectal cancer cohort and associations with health and well-being outcomes up to 5 years following surgery.
Methods: Prospective cohort study of 872 colorectal cancer patients recruited 2010 to 2012 from 29 UK centres, awaiting curative intent surgery.
Purpose: To develop a decision support tool for young women with breast cancer considering genetic testing for BRCA1/2 mutations soon after cancer diagnosis.
Methods: A four-stage iterative development process was employed; stage 1, literature review exploring the availability and efficacy of empirically tested decision support tools; stage 2, in-depth interviews with 29 young women (< 50 years) recently diagnosed with breast cancer, exploring information requirements and experiences of genetic testing decision making; stage 3, three focus groups (N = 21) exploring preferences for information presentation and prioritisation of content; stage 4, think-aloud interviews to refine the prototype (N = 16).
Results: Participants wanted information regarding the pros and cons of testing, the testing process and implications for their family, presented in a way that allowed them to choose the level of detail they required.