A pilot randomized controlled trial of a virtual peer-support exercise intervention for female older adults with cancer
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Regular exercise can mitigate side effects of cancer treatment. However, only a small proportion of adults with cancer meet exercise guidelines, and older adults (> 65 years) are underrepresented in cancer rehabilitation research. Peer support facilitates health-promoting behaviours in general populations, but interventions merging exercise and peer support for older adults with cancer are not examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a virtual partner-based peer support exercise intervention for older adult female cancer survivors. METHODS: Older adult female cancer survivors with internet access and currently participating in < 150 min of moderate-vigorous physical activity per week were included in this study. Participants were matched with a partner and given a peer support guide, exercise guidelines, and a Fitbit Inspire©. In addition, intervention group dyads (AgeMatchPLUS) had weekly 1-h virtual sessions with a qualified exercise professional for 10 weeks. Dyads randomized to the control group (AgeMatch) independently supported their partner around exercise for 10 weeks. The primary outcome was feasibility, measured using retention and adherence rates. Secondary outcomes included exercise volume, social support, quality of life, physical function, and physical activity enjoyment. Descriptive statistics were used to report feasibility and an ANCOVA was used to explore between group differences on secondary outcomes at post-intervention (10 weeks post baseline) and post-tapering timepoints (14 weeks post baseline). RESULTS: Eighteen participants (9 dyads; mean age 72 years (SD: 5.7 years)) were included in the pilot trial. Retention and adherence rates to the AgeMatchPLUS intervention were 100% and 95% respectively. All but one participant was satisfied with the quality of their peer match. Preliminary effects were seen between group, favouring AgeMatchPLUS for exercise-related social support post-intervention (effect size (d) = 0.27, 95% CI = 0,0.54) and physical activity enjoyment at post-tapering (d = 0.25, 95% CI = 0,0.52) and favouring the AgeMatch group for 30 s sit-to-stand repetitions at post-tapering (d = 0.31, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.57). No other effects were found. CONCLUSIONS: A virtual partner-based exercise intervention for older adults with cancer is feasible and shows preliminary effect benefits. Findings inform future trials aimed at increasing exercise in older adults with cancer. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT05549479, date: 22/09/22).
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".