Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2022 Mar;5(3):e1490. doi: 10.1002/cnr2.1490. Epub 2021 Jul 8.
There is strong evidence supporting the efficacy of exercise oncology programs to improve physical and psychosocial outcomes during active treatment. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the effect of exercise on healthcare utilization and cost analyzes of exercise oncology programs.
Our objective was to assess the effects of a pragmatic exercise oncology program (ENACT) during active chemotherapy treatment on healthcare utilization and associated costs.
We conducted post-hoc analyzes on 160 ENACT participants and 75 comparison participants matched on cancer site, stage, age range, and gender. We obtained complete healthcare utilization histories for each patient (specific to emergency department [ED] visits and hospital admissions) coinciding with their participation in ENACT. A sub-analysis was conducted for advanced stage breast, gastrointestinal, and pancreatic cancer patients.
Healthcare costs for patients who participated in the ENACT exercise oncology intervention were numerically lower than healthcare costs for the comparison group, even after accounting for the cost of the intervention. However, the differences were not statistically significant.
Our findings suggest that an exercise oncology program during active chemotherapy treatment are at least cost neutral for all cancer patients, including advanced stage cancers. Additional research is warranted to evaluate the potential for exercise oncology programs to reduce healthcare utilization, particularly in advanced cancer patients.
有大量证据支持运动肿瘤学方案在积极治疗期间改善身体和心理社会结果的疗效。然而，关于运动肿瘤学方案对医疗保健利用的影响以及对其成本分析的证据有限。
我们的目的是评估积极化疗期间实用运动肿瘤学方案（ENACT）对医疗保健利用和相关成本的影响。
我们对 160 名 ENACT 参与者和 75 名按癌症部位、分期、年龄范围和性别匹配的对照组参与者进行了事后分析。我们为每位患者获得了完整的医疗保健利用史（具体针对急诊就诊和住院），与他们参与 ENACT 相吻合。对晚期乳腺癌、胃肠道癌和胰腺癌患者进行了亚分析。
尽管考虑了干预的成本，但参与 ENACT 运动肿瘤学干预的患者的医疗保健成本在数值上低于对照组的医疗保健成本。然而，差异没有统计学意义。
我们的研究结果表明，对于所有癌症患者，包括晚期癌症患者，在积极化疗期间实施运动肿瘤学方案至少在成本上是中性的。需要进一步的研究来评估运动肿瘤学方案在减少医疗保健利用方面的潜力，特别是在晚期癌症患者中。
