A study looking at a walking programme for people who have cancer that has come back or spread to another part of the body (CanWalk)

The study team found that the walking programme was acceptable. 

About this study
This was a feasibility study. 42 people joined the study. 

It was a randomised study. The people who took part were put into 1 of 2 groups. Neither they nor their doctor chose which group they were in.

21 people were in the group that did the CanWalk programme.
 
21 people continued with their usual levels of activity.  This was the control group . 

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• encourage them to join a weekly walk group from the Walking for Health (WfH) programme
• encourage them to walk in between their weekly walk with WfH

• 6 weeks
• 12 weeks
• 24 weeks (end of the study)

• what they thought about the study
• what they thought about being put into different groups (randomisation process)
• their thoughts about the questionnaires and filling them in

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People who joined the study

Of the 110 people who were able to join the study, 49 people (47%) decided not to. The main reason for not joining was work commitments. People were willing to walk on every other day but felt they couldn’t commit to a weekly walking group. 

 

Over half the people (53%) were interested in taking part. The number who did join was 4 out of every 10 people (40%). Reasons for this drop in numbers of people who actually joined wasn’t known. 

 

The people who were interviewed said that the randomisation process was acceptable. 

 

People who stayed in the study

During the study 19 people (45%) withdrew:

• 12 people (28%) between the start of the study and week 6
• 7 people (17%) between week 12 and week 24

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General reasons for not continuing weren’t given. But 2 people weren’t well enough and 2 people died. 

 

The researchers noted that the anxiety levels reported by people was higher at the start of the study than at the end. And this was the only factor linked to people not continuing in the study.  

 

Acceptability of questionnaires

In the interviews people reported it took between 10 minutes and 40 minutes to fill in the questionnaires. 

 

They said all were suitable apart from the Scottish Physical Activity Questionnaire (SPAQ). 8 of the 10 people said it was tiresome, asked the same questions and was difficult to complete. 

 

About Walk for Health 

There were no side effects reported by people in the study. 

 

Views about the CanWalk study were positive. Although information from the interviews suggested that engagement with and remaining within the WfH walk groups was varied. 

 

4 of the 5 people interviewed who were in the WfH group did both walks with the group and their own walks. 

 

At 24 weeks, 9 of the 21 people completed the end of study questionnaire. 8 people reported they found the WfH useful. 7 people reported being satisfied with WfH. 

 

During the interviews certain barriers about WfH were identified. These included:

• a preference for doing their own walks
• a dislike of group activities
• convenience and availability of the WfH walks 

One person stopped going to WfH because they felt it was more for older people than young people. They decided to continue with their own walks. 

 

During the interviews people suggested offering alternative walks to the group ones. 

 

Effect on the control group

Only 1 person in the control group said they received information on exercising during the study.

 

In the End of Study Questionnaire 9 people said that taking part in the study encouraged them to increase their physical activity. This was confirmed by 3 of the 5 people from the control group who were interviewed.

 

Quality of life

When people in the WfH group were interviewed they said that from taking part in the group walks they had benefited:

• physically
• emotionally and psychologically
• socially
• by changing their life style 

In the interviews everyone in the WfH group and 3 out of the 5 in the control group reported an increase in their physical activity after the study. 

 

Well-being and lifestyle benefits, such as weight loss, motivated people to increase the amount they walked.

 

Conclusion

The study team concluded that doing a randomised clinical trial using the CanWalk programme was possible and acceptable.

 

But they needed to make changes to make it more appropriate and easier for people to report on. These changes included: 

• using another way to measure walking behaviour other than the pedometer
• using questionnaires that ask questions about social contacts 
• having other groups for comparison such as a group that receives written information only 

Where this information comes from

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.