Digital Lifestyle-Intervention in Rehabilitation Aftercare
Development and evaluation of a mobile application focusing on physical activity, nutrition, and breathing/relaxation to promote health-related quality of life in lung cancer survivors.
Factsheet
- Lead school School of Health Professions
- Institute Academic-Practice-Partnership Insel Gruppe/ BFH
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration (planned) 01.01.2023 - 30.04.2025
- Project management Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schmitt
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Schmitt
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Project staff
Manuel Weber
PD Dr. Anja Frei
Dr. Anja Raab
Prof. Dr. Milo Puhan -
Partner
Lungenliga Schweiz
Berner Reha Zentrum AG
Zürcher RehaZentren
Klinik Barmelweid AG
Uni Zürich - Keywords Lifestyle, Physical activity, Nutrition, Breathing, Relaxation, mHealth, Lung cancer, Quality of life
Situation
Lung cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in Switzerland. Lung cancer survivors suffer from reduced physical and psychological functioning as well as decreased overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL) due to cancer symptoms, cancer treatments, and comorbidities. HRQoL can be positively influenced by physical activity, healthy nutrition, and breathing/relaxation exercises. Frequently, there is insufficient support for integrating a healthy lifestyle into everyday life after discharge from rehabilitation. Using newer technologies can encourage patients to self-manage certain health issues and lifestyle issues. However, digital solutions lack target group-specific designs and combinations of several health-enhancing factors (synergistic effects).
Course of action
Within the present project, a mobile application for lung cancer survivors following inpatient rehabilitation is developed. The main foci of the mobile application are physical activity, nutrition, and breathing/relaxation. The development process follows a participatory approach (co-creation). The effectiveness of the mobile application will be examined in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Lung cancer survivors of different Swiss rehabilitation centers will be randomly allocated to the intervention or comparison group. The intervention group will use the mobile application for 12 weeks. The comparison group will receive usual care only. The primary outcome is HRQoL. Secondary outcomes are, inter alia, physical activity, appetite, low protein intake, psychological distress, and cancer-related fatigue.
