The use of eHealth to promote physical activity in thoracic malignancies survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Enferm Clin (Engl Ed). 2022 Nov 15:S2445-1479(22)00124-2. doi: 10.1016/j.enfcle.2022.10.006. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Survival rates for many forms of thoracic malignancies have improved over the past few decades, however, many survivors are coping with the side effects of cancer treatment for longer. Physical activity (PA) has been proposed as a therapeutic strategy to combat the effects of treatment in cancer survivors and eHealth could be a good way to encourage patients to practice it.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of eHealth in the promotion of PA among thoracic malignancies.

METHODS: Suitable articles were searched using PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases using a combination of medical subject headings.

RESULTS: In total, 4781 articles were identified, of which ten met eligibility criteria. Different eHealth interventions were described in these studies: mobile application (app) (n = 3), website (n = 2), email (n = 2), web and mobile application (n = 1), telephone counseling (n = 1) and online sheet (n = 1). All studies reported improvements in PA, with 8/10 studies reporting statistically significant changes.

CONCLUSION: Our results show that eHealth programs are useful to promote PA in malignancy thoracic survivors, compared to no intervention, conventional treatment or a dietary approach. Moreover, the meta-analysis also revealed eHealth is a good way to improve the level of PA in thoracic malignancies survivors.

PMID:36400165 | DOI:10.1016/j.enfcle.2022.10.006