Recent School of Kinesiology Ph.D. graduate Zachary Pope, associate professor Zan Gao, Ph.D., and Nan Zeng, Ph.D., from Colorado State University, recently published an article titled “ Effectiveness of combined smartwatch and social media intervention on breast cancer survivor outcomes: 10-week pilot randomized trial” in Journal of Clinical Medicine (impact factor: 5.58).

Pope and Zeng are former advisees of Gao. This study was funded by Gao’s 2016 Grant-in-Aid from the U of M. The other two co-authors are Dr. Rui Zhang from the U of M School of Pharmacy and Prof. Hee Yun Lee from the University of Alabama. Gao is director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory (PAEL).

The study evaluated the effectiveness of a combined smartwatch- and social media-based health education intervention on breast cancer survivors’ health outcomes. Thirty breast cancer survivors participated in this 10-week, 2-arm randomized trial. The study found that both intervention and comparison groups demonstrated similarly increased daily light physical activity (PA), moderate-to-vigorous PA, energy expenditure, and steps over time. Despite extensive user training, several experimental breast cancer survivors found the Polar M400 use difficult, possibly decreasing intervention adherence.