Cancer patients’ perception of usefulness with wearable exercise tracker.

Abstract

51 Background: Wearable trackers (WT) are known for its popular use in healthy, active persons but limited studies have been conducted in cancer survivors. Methods: Participants were asked to wear the WT and synchronize data. Patients were asked to fill out questionnaire regarding their patient reported perceptions of the WT and their perception of usefulness of the WT. Results: 110 cancer patients were enrolled with 100 evaluable surveys. Median age of patients was 62 years old, females (60, 55%), white (79,73%), married/with significant other (77, 71%), with college education and above (51, 47%). There was no statistically significant association between demographic factors of age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, or education and the perception of usefulness of the WT. Eighty-four percent of outpatient (OP) and 67% of inpatient (IP) cancer patients perceived WT as useful, 96% OP and 94% IP reported wearing WT daily, 64% OP and 55% IP perceived WT as helping to increase physical activity and 76% OP and 59% IP would continue to wear WT after this study. For inpatients, ESAS score of pain (p value <0.001), shortness of breath (p value <0.0002) and feeling of well-being (p value <0.001) improved over the course of rehabilitation. Improvement in FIM scores for transfers to wheelchair, walk assistance, walk distance, walking, stairs assistance, and stairs is significantly improved in rehabilitation (p value<0.05). The average resting heart rate was 77 beats per minute and average number of steps per day was 1,863. For outpatients, the average resting heart rate was 77 beats per minute and average number of steps per day was 3,423. Patients who reported the WT as useful had significantly lower fatigue severity (3.3 vs. 6, p value<0.05). Conclusions: Cancer patients perceived the WT as useful in both the inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation setting. No specific sub-group(s) of patients who expressed a higher level of agreement for usefulness of a wearable exercise tracker. There was an association between lower ESAS fatigue score and patient agreement of usefulness of the WT. These findings justify more research in WT and cancer rehabilitation. Clinical trial information: NCT03042884.