Cancer, Lung
Conditions
Keywords
Lifestyle modification, physical activity, e-messages
Brief summary
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer diseases, globally and locally. Several health benefits of increased physical activity (PA) have been reported for people with cancer. PA plays a critical role across the cancer trajectory, from prevention through to post-diagnosis and has been proposed as an alternative for improving physical and psychosocial health outcomes, reducing cancer recurrence, and cancer-specific and all-cause mortality. Although there are a variety of exercise intervention programs for cancer patients, those programs were quite intensive, requiring individuals to commit extra time and effort. Feeling of overwhelmed appointments, lack of time, other barriers, including high cost and limited access to facilities are the most frequently reported barriers that prevent people from starting and maintaining exercise. Hence, the investigators propose to use a brief messaging lifestyle modification intervention program to incorporating simple and easy-to-do patient-centred home-based lifestyle-integrated exercise into daily activities of patients with lung cancer. The aims are to explore the feasibility of using instant messaging to enhance physical activity and improve their fatigue, emotion and quality of life, and obtain feedback from patients for intervention and study design improvement.
Detailed description
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer, globally and locally. Patients with lung cancer are in a uniquely challenging situation in their disease, comorbidities, and treatment that may lead to worsened symptoms and many negative health consequences, including fatigue, irritability, and impaired daytime functioning. Physical activity (PA) is defined as 'any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure'. Several health benefits of increased PA have been reported for people with cancer. PA plays a critical role across the cancer trajectory, from prevention through to postdiagnosis and has been proposed as an alternative for improving physical and psychosocial health outcomes, reducing cancer recurrence, and cancer-specific and all-cause mortality. Although there are a variety of exercise intervention programs for cancer patients, those programs were quite intensive, requiring individuals to commit extra time and effort. Most clinicians underutilise exercise therapy, regardless of its low-cost way to improve symptoms and potential health outcomes. Feeling of overwhelmed appointments, lack of time, other barriers, including high cost and limited access to facilities are the most frequently reported barriers that prevent people from starting and maintaining exercise. Low motivation, fear to exercise, lack of knowledge about benefits are the most common barriers of engaging in physical activity for cancer patients. Hence, the current proposal is to use a brief messaging lifestyle modification intervention program to incorporating simple and easy-to-do patient-centred home-based lifestyle-integrated exercise (light to moderate physical activity) into daily activities of patients with lung cancer. The aims are to explore the feasibility of using instant messaging to enhance physical activity and improve their fatigue, emotion and quality of life, and obtain feedback from patients for intervention and study design improvement.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBrief messaging and personalized support
Patients will receive (i) a face-to-face group session and a package of instant messages related to lifestyle-integrated exercise (including breathing, balance, aerobic, strength, stretching exercises), cancer-related care information and support.
Sponsors
The University of Hong Kong
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
The experimental group will receive a face-to-face group session and a package of information on lifestyle-integrated exercise and physical activity.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 100 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Aged 18 years and above; * Diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer * Fatigue symptom score ≥4 out of 10 * Self-reported engagement of \<150 minutes of moderate-intensity PA each week * Ambulatory and capable of all self-care activities * Either undergoing or finished oncology therapy and/or support care * Mentally, cognitively and physically fit to join the trial * Able to speak and read Chinese; * Willing to complete the patient-reported outcome questionnaire * Completion of the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire * Possession of a smartphone with instant messaging functions such as WhatsApp or WeChat.
Exclusion criteria
* Those preparing for lung operation * Skeletal fragility * Serious active infection * Inability to walk * Severe respiratory insufficiency * Uncontrolled pain * Diagnosed psychiatric illness such as major depressive disorder
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in fatigue level at 6 week | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Fatigue subscale, the higher scores, the more fatigue. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in sleep quality at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by the Pittsburgh sleep quality index . The higher the score, the worse the quality. |
| Change in dyspnea at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by a question with a scale from 0 to 10; a score of 0 indicates no dyspnea at all, a score of 10 indicates severe dyspnea. The higher score, the more dyspnea. |
| Change in Health-related quality of life at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and Lung Module. The higher scores the worse the quality. |
| Change in Subjective Happiness at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by Subjective Happiness Scale. The higher scores the more happy. |
| Change in Pain at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by a question with a scale from 0 to 10; a score of 0 indicates no pain at all, a score of 10 indicates severe pain. The higher score, the more pain. |
| Change in Anxiety and depressive symptoms at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Each item is answered on a 4-point scale (0-3). The scores for the seven questions on depression are added together to obtain a score ranged from 0 to 21. The higher score the more depressed. The scores for the seven questions on anxiety are added together to obtain a score ranged from 0 to 21. The higher score the more anxiety and depression symptoms. |
| Change in hand grip strength at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by a dynamometer |
| Change in balance at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by single leg stand test |
| Change in flexibility at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by chair sit and reach test |
| Change in sleep quality with objective measurement at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by activity monitor on duration of sleep and awake intervals |
| Change in physical activity level with objective measurement at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by accelerometer on the daily walking steps |
| Change in activity level at 6 weeks | Baseline and 6 weeks | measured by pedometer |
Countries
Hong Kong
Contacts
Primary ContactAgnes Lai, PhD
Backup ContactAsa Choi, MA
Outcome results
None listed