Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 10, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 9, 2023 - Mar 27, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 4, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The Impact of Mobile Support Group on Distress and Physical Activity in Breast Cancer Survivors: a randomized, parallel-group, open-label, controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although mobile technology has been shown as a breakthrough modality for changing health behaviors, it has not yet been studied whether this method can affect the degree of physical activity and improve mental health in cancer survivors.
Objective:
This randomized controlled trial investigates the impact of engagement in a mobile health community of breast cancer survivors on physical activity and mental distress.
Methods:
In this single-center, randomized, parallel-group, open-label, controlled trial, 20 to 60-year-old women with stage 0 to III breast cancer, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0, and the capability of using their own smartphone apps were enrolled. Subjects were randomly assigned (1:1) to either the intervention group (engagement in a mobile peer support community using an app for tracking steps) or the control group (using the app for step tracking only) with a block size of 10 without stratification. The mobile app provides a visual interface of daily step counts, while the community function also provides rankings among its members and regular notifications encouraging physical activity. The primary endpoint was the rate of moderate-to-severe distress at 24 weeks measured through an app-based survey using the Distress Thermometer. The secondary endpoint was the total weekly steps at 24 weeks.
Results:
From January 7, 2019 to April 17, 2020, 2,616 screened patients were consecutively screened for eligibility after breast cancer surgery, and 186 were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=93) and control group (n=93). After excluding dropouts, 85 patients in the intervention group and 90 patients in the control group were included in the analysis. Multivariate analyses showed that subjects in the intervention group had a significantly lower degree of moderate-to-severe distress (b=-0·558, p<0·001) and a higher number of total weekly step counts (b=4,496 steps/week, p<0·001).
Conclusions:
Engagement in a mobile app-based patient community was effective in reducing mental distress and increasing physical activity in breast cancer survivors. Clinical Trial: This trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03783481).
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.