ASPO Abstracts
Association between daily physical functioning and accelerometer-measured physical activity in colon cancer patients: An ecological momentary assessment study
Category: Survivorship & Health Outcomes/Comparative Effectiveness Research
Conference Year: 2020
Abstract Body:
Purpose of the study: To test if daily self-reported physical functioning is associated with
device-measured physical activity in a sample of colon cancer patients’ daily lives.
Methods: This study analyzed data from a pilot study arm as part of the
Cyberinfrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CYCORE) feasibility trial,
which recruited colorectal cancer patients (stage I-IV) for two bursts of 5-day monitoring
of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and accelerometer wear. This study used
data from the evening EMA surveys that asked questions about physical functioning.
These included 10 items adapted from a quality-of-life measure (SF-36) that
asked “Today, how much did your health limit you in…” A summary score was calculated
based on the SF-36 scoring rules with a range from 0 to 100. Actigraph data was
processed to estimate daily minutes in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).
Multilevel linear regression models were conducted to test the between-subject (BS) and
within-subject (WS) associations between daily physical functioning scores and total
MVPA minutes.
Results: A total of 48 colon cancer patients enrolled in the pilot study arm. Of them, 39
had at least one completed EMA evening survey during the monitoring period. Three out
of the 39 patients did not have any valid accelerometer data. Thus, 36 patients were
included in the current analysis. They were 50% female, 78% white, and average age
was 54 years old (ranged 25-70, SD=11.5). Patients on average had 5 days of EMA-
accelerometer matched data (ranged 1-10, SD=2.8). Their average physical functioning
score was 84 (ranged 29-100, SD=18) and average daily MVPA minutes was 42 (ranged
0-159, SD=38.2). A positive association was found between physical functioning and
MVPA minutes at the BS level (β=0.15, p=0.04). There was no significant association at
the WS level.
Conclusion: Colon cancer patients’ physical functioning was not associated with that
day’s device-measured physical activity. However, patients who generally engaged in
more MVPA than others reported better physical functioning. Remote monitoring tools
such as EMA and accelerometry provide us opportunity to investigate dynamic
associations in cancer patients’ behavioral performance and outcomes in their daily lives.
Keywords: Remote monitoring Patient-reported outcome Physical activity