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

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.