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Physical activity behaviour in children and adolescents before, during and after cancer treatment

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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.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Sandra Stössel and Marie A. Neu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Hemostaseology, Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz, Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany

    Sandra Stössel, Marie A. Neu & Joerg Faber

  2. Department of Molecular and Cellular Sport Medicine, Institute of Cardiovascular Research and Sports Medicine, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933, Cologne, Germany

    Vanessa Oschwald, Julia Däggelmann & Wilhelm Bloch

  3. Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Hemostaseology, Leipzig University Hospital, Liebigstraße 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Regine Söntgerath & Vivian Hamacher

  4. Institute of Sport and Sport Science, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 700, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Katharina Eckert

  5. Department I of Internal Medicine, Center of Integrated Oncology Köln Bonn, University Hospital of Cologne, Kerpenerstraße 62, 50937, Cologne, Germany

    Freerk T. Baumann

Authors
  1. Sandra Stössel
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  2. Marie A. Neu
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  3. Vanessa Oschwald
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  4. Regine Söntgerath
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  5. Julia Däggelmann
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  6. Katharina Eckert
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  7. Vivian Hamacher
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  8. Freerk T. Baumann
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  9. Wilhelm Bloch
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  10. Joerg Faber
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joerg Faber.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

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.

Informed consent

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

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