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Abstract
Purpose Physical activity may greatly benefit adults living with advanced cancer; however, barriers to physical activity and preferences for supportive care interventions are not well understood. This study investigates barriers to physical activity and differences in intervention preferences by demographic and clinical characteristics among adults with advanced cancer.
Methods Data came from a cross-sectional study of 247 adults with advanced cancer who visited the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Centre from January 2021 to January 2023. The Godin–Shepard Leisure Score Index (insufficiently active, moderately active and active) was used to assess physical activity. Physical activity barriers were reported as mean scores (1–5: ‘not at all’ to ‘a great deal’). Differences in intervention preferences were assessed using X2 tests.
Results Adults living with advanced cancer were insufficiently active (53%), moderately active (21%) or active (26%). Respondents identified several barriers to physical activity spanning tiredness (x̄=3.2), winter weather concerns (x̄=3.2) and lack of motivation (x̄=2.7). Respondents were most interested in a supportive care intervention designed to increase energy (88%) and improve physical health (86%) with physical therapy (73%), walking (72%) and resistance exercises (72%). Differences in preferences emerged by demographic characteristics and to a lesser extent by clinical characteristics.
Conclusions Adults with advanced cancer reported several barriers to physical activity. Future interventions should emphasise increasing energy and physical health and include strategies to manage tiredness and winter weather concerns.
- Cancer
- Supportive care
- Integrative Oncology
- Quality of life
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available because of the sensitive protected health information (PHI), rarity of diagnosis, single study site and small sample size.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available because of the sensitive protected health information (PHI), rarity of diagnosis, single study site and small sample size.
Footnotes
Contributors Conceptualisation: MA; methodology: MA and RG; formal analysis and investigation: MA and SWA; writing - original draft preparation: MA; writing - review and editing: MA, SWA, CWS, KK, AT-D and RG; funding acquisition: LC-B; resources: LC-B; supervision: LC-B and SWA; guarantor: MA.
Funding This work was supported by the Virginia Horne Henry Foundation (ID: AAL1935) and the first author’s time was supported by the grant T32 AG00129 awarded to the Centre for Demography of Health and Ageing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by the National Institute on Aging. SWA’s time was supported by the grant R01 CA255318. Authors were also supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute to the UW Carbone Cancer Centre (P30 CA014520).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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