Abstract
BackgroundLung cancer patients experience various symptoms during treatment. Although pulmonary rehabilitation is an effective way to improve these symptoms, a medical environment of limited availability makes it difficult to provide seamless and adequate rehabilitation for lung cancer patients.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the effects of a personalized pulmonary rehabilitation program using real-time mobile patient health data for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.MethodsWe conducted a prospective clinical trial in 64 patients with non–small cell lung cancer aged between 20 and 80 years at a large tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea. A 12-week personalized pulmonary rehabilitation program, called efil breath, was administered to determine the effectiveness of the newly developed rehabilitation app. Participants were randomly allocated to the fixed exercise or fixed-interactive exercise group (which received the personalized program). We measured changes in 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) and dyspnea (modified Medical Research Council [mMRC] score) at 6 weeks; and quality of life and service satisfaction at 12 weeks. We used the paired t test to analyze the variables.ResultsPatients used the newly developed mobile health pulmonary rehabilitation app and a real-time patient monitoring website. In all participants, significant changes were observed in 6MWD at 12 weeks from a mean of 433.43m (SD 65.60) to 471.25m (SD 75.69; P=.001), and mMRC from a mean score of 0.94 (0.66) to 0.61 (SD 0.82; P=.02). The intervention significantly improved their quality of life (EuroQol-visual analog scale [EQ-VAS]) compared with baseline (mean score 76.05, SD 12.37 vs 82.09, SD 13.67, respectively; P=.002).ConclusionsA personalized mobile health–based pulmonary rehabilitation app for recording and monitoring real-time health data of patients with non–small cell lung cancer can supplement traditional health care center–based rehabilitation programs. This technology can encourage improvement of physical activity, dyspnea, and quality of life.
Highlights
BackgroundLung cancer is a leading cause of death from cancer worldwide [1], with high rates of morbidity and mortality, as well as having a high burden of symptoms, such as dyspnea, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and pain [2,3]
Many studies have addressed the use of Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) to reduce postoperative complications or improve postoperative outcomes among patients with lung cancer undergoing surgery [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], some studies have reported that PR can improve exercise capacity, alleviate symptoms, and improve the quality of life (QoL) of patients with lung cancer who have received chemotherapy or radiation therapy [18,19,20,21]
We demonstrated that personalized PR using mobile technology significantly improved exercise capacity and QoL for patients with lung cancer regardless of disease status
Summary
BackgroundLung cancer is a leading cause of death from cancer worldwide [1], with high rates of morbidity and mortality, as well as having a high burden of symptoms, such as dyspnea, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and pain [2,3]. Despite the reported effectiveness of PR, the application of PR to patients with lung cancer in real clinical practice environments is limited due to long waiting lists for rehabilitation services [22]. To overcome these limitations, studies on the effects of home-based PR on lung cancer patients have been reported [23,24,25,26,27], giving rise to the development of mobile technologies in health care delivery. Pulmonary rehabilitation is an effective way to improve these symptoms, a medical environment of limited availability makes it difficult to provide seamless and adequate rehabilitation for lung cancer patients
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