ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pulmonary Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1590327
Association of Perioperative Step Count Tracked by a Wristband with Surgical Outcomes in Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery: A Prospective Observational Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Anesthesiology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
- 2School of Anesthesiology, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China
- 3Department of Anesthesiology, The First People's Hospital of Chenzhou, Chenzhou, Hunan Province, China
- 4Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Canada, Canada
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Background: Physical activity has been reported to be associated with surgical outcomes, but most previous studies have focused solely on postoperative step counts. To better understand the relationship between step count at different phases and surgical outcomes, we prospectively recorded patients' step counts before and after lung surgery.Step count data were collected from 244 patients who underwent minimally invasive surgery for lung cancer using Mi Band 5 to track preoperative and 3-day postoperative activity. Patients' quality of life was assessed using the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) preoperatively and at 1 and 3 months postoperatively. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the impact of perioperative step count on hospital length of stay and quality of life.Results: Preoperative (r = -0.146, p = 0.023) and postoperative day 1(r = -0.172, p = 0.018) step count were significantly correlated with the length of hospital stay. Postoperative day 1 step count was positively correlated with changes in SF-12 Physical Component Score (PCS) at 1 month (r = 0.186, p = 0.013). Pain significantly affected PCS changes at both 1 (β = -3.33, p <0.001) and 3 months (β = -3.06, p <0.001).Conclusions: Higher preoperative step counts are associated with a shorter hospital stay, while early postoperative physical activity is linked to both reduced hospital stay and improved short-term quality of life.Clinical trial registration: NCT 04934657 (registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, June 22, 2021).
Keywords: lung surgery, Patient recovery, physical activity, Step count, surgical outcome, Wearable Device
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yao, Ying, Liu, Yu, Wang, Wang, Zheng and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Bin Zheng, Department of Surgery, University of Alberta, Canada, Canada
Min Yan, Department of Anesthesiology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.