JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As the number of cancer survivors increases, maintaining health-related quality of life in cancer survivorship is a priority. Digital measures derived from wearable sensors offer potential for monitoring well-being and physical function in cancer survivorship, but questions surrounding their clinical utility remain to be answered.

Objective:

In this study, we determined how measures of real-world physical behavior, captured with a wearable accelerometer, were related to aerobic fitness and self-reported well-being and physical function.

Methods:

Eighty-six disease-free cancer survivors completed self-report assessments of well-being and physical function as well as a submaximal exercise test that was used to estimate their aerobic fitness, quantified as predicted submaximal oxygen uptake (VO2). A thigh-worn accelerometer was used to monitor participants’ real-world physical behavior for 7 days.

Results:

We found that only 1 of 7 accelerometry-derived measures of real-world physical behavior was significantly correlated with self-reported well-being or physical function. In contrast, all but 1 measure of physical behavior were significantly correlated with submaximal VO2. Comparing these associations using likelihood ratio tests, we found that real-world physical behavior was more strongly associated with aerobic fitness than with self-reported well-being or physical function.

Conclusions:

These results highlight the possibility that in cancer survivors who have completed treatment, measures of real-world physical behavior may complement self-reported and performance measures. Combining these measures may be useful for more holistic assessment of physical function in cancer survivorship and clinical research.