A systematic review of the effects of remote feedback in home-based strategy physical activity interventions for cancer survivors

Background: Studies have reported on positive health outcomes from physical activity (PA) for cancer survivorship. Systematic reviews, meta-analysis and trial studies have concluded that PA intervention improves quality of life and physical function, reduces the relapse of cancer and mitigates cancer mortality. Despite these important gains, cancer survivors’ PA level is still not satisfactory. Across all cancer types, home is the most preferred location of PA. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of remote feedback delivery strategy for home-based PA among cancer survivors. Methods: A systematic review was conducted by retrieving relevant articles published from the year 2009 to 2019 from the database aggregator EBSCOhost (databases used were Medline, CINAHL, SPORT Discuss and Cochrane trials). Results: Both frequent remote contact and direct remote contact are equally effective and have a larger effect than programmes with usual care, no intervention, participants placed in waiting list for intervention or participants given basic guidelines on PA. Direct remote contact reported strong evidence of moderate effect while frequent telephone contact reported conflicting findings of varied effect sizes. Conclusion: Opting for remote feedback strategies with supervised exercise provide an easier approach for the cancer survivors to keep up with exercise for a longer period of time and can be integrated in a cancer survivor’s lifestyle.