Abstract
Purpose
Childhood cancer survivors show reduced physical activity (PA) levels which may considerably impact child development, quality of life, social participation and sequelae such as functional and cardiovascular health. This study aims to evaluate different aspects of PA behaviour in patients with childhood cancer (PaC) before (bT), during (dT) and after (aT) cancer treatment.
Methods
In this cross-sectional, multicentre study, 114 PaC and 37 healthy controls between 4 and 20 years of age were enrolled. PA behaviour was assessed using an adapted questionnaire which included items asking about PA level, PA intensity and domains of PA.
Results
Patients reported lower PA levels and less minutes of PA at moderate-intensity dT than aT and bT (P ≤ 0.05). Healthy controls reported higher PA levels than patients aT (P ≤ 0.05). At school, 41.7% of PaC did not participate in physical education aT or bT. Lastly, 45.6% of PaC who were engaged in sport club activities bT did no more participate in sport club activities aT.
Conclusion
Patients reported different PA behaviours dT and aT than bT. Therefore, monitoring of PA should be considered to increase PA levels in PaC. Future studies also need to examine how PA behaviour can be influenced in a positive way in PaC.
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Abbreviations
- aT:
-
After childhood cancer treatment
- bT:
-
Before childhood cancer treatment
- CCS:
-
Childhood cancer survivors
- dT:
-
During childhood cancer treatment
- KiGGS:
-
German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents
- LPA:
-
Light-intensity physical activity
- MPA:
-
Moderate-intensity physical activity
- PA:
-
Physical activity
- PaC:
-
Patients with childhood cancer
- VAS:
-
Visual analogue scale
- VPA:
-
Vigorous-intensity physical activity
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Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank all patients and controls for participating in this study. We would like to extend our thanks to Aram Prokop for his support in implementing the project at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Children’s Hospital, Amsterdamer Straße, Cologne. Further, we thank Jasmin Persch for editing the manuscript.
Funding
This study was carried out without specific funding.
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The study was approved by the ethics review committee of the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Physicians, trial reference number 837.290.14 (9529) and it was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study or, respectively, from their legal guardians in case of minors.
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Stössel, S., Neu, M.A., Oschwald, V. et al. Physical activity behaviour in children and adolescents before, during and after cancer treatment. Sport Sci Health 16, 347–353 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-019-00612-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-019-00612-7