An Initial Look At Step Data, The Nurse Amie Trial

Prior research has shown that addressing symptoms in advanced cancer patients in urban areas results in survival benefits and improved quality of life. However, little is known about the benefits of addressing symptoms in these patients in rural areas. Further, exercise has been shown to improve cancer symptoms, but few studies have addressed physical activity among rural advanced cancer patients. PURPOSE: The purpose of the Nurse AMIE study is to examine whether a tablet-based supportive care program will improve survival or quality of life among rural advanced cancer patients. One element of the supportive care program is to provide a step counter to enable participants to report their daily steps, and to provide a step goal that is 10% higher than the average of the prior week. The purpose of the present analysis is to document and compare the step counts reported by participants thus far in the study. METHODS: The Nurse AMIE trial is a randomized control trial with 140 participants at the time of writing, n = 58 in the intervention group. Step counters are provided to the intervention group, as well as a daily step goal. At the time of writing this, we have step data for fifty-eight participants of those fifty-eight, 10 only had their first tablet day uploaded and would not be included in the results. RESULTS: Of the 48 participants for whom we have data, the number of days of step count data available ranged from 1 to 420, with an average of 105 days (15 weeks). The pattern of daily step counts is provided in Fig. 1 below for all participants. The average daily step counts for women was 3084 (N = 27), as compared to 2623 for men (N = 21). The average daily step counts for stage 3 patients was 4404 (N = 18), as compared to 1666 in stage 4 patients (N = 23), and 2567 in advanced stage less cancer patients (N = 7). The pattern of daily step counts significantly increased over the period of follow up, with an average of 3154 in week one and 4239 in week 15 of those that have data in week 1 and week 15 (p = 0.047). CONCLUSION: It appears that Stage 3 patients are more active than Stage 4 and advanced stage less cancer patients in a population of rural advanced cancer patients. Advanced cancer patients provided with a step counter and a tablet based supportive care program, that includes daily step goals, increased their step counts over the period of intervention observed so far. RO1-CA254659