Fitbit Data Link More Daily Steps to Better Quality of Life in Newly Diagnosed Blood Cancer Patients

Newly diagnosed patients with hematologic cancers who walked more each day reported better health-related quality of life during their first year after diagnosis, according to an observational cohort study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship. The research, led by Afke Ekels and colleagues, used consumer-grade Fitbit Inspire HR trackers to capture real-world activity data in 130 patients, while 314 patients in the broader cohort completed quality-of-life questionnaires at diagnosis and again at 3, 6, and 12 months.

The study measured physical activity as daily step counts and used heart rate data from the trackers as an indicator of general fitness and health status. Quality of life was assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and disease-specific modules. Mixed statistical models were used to evaluate how steps and heart rate related to quality-of-life outcomes over time, and results were presented according to quartiles of daily steps. At diagnosis, the median daily step counts per quartile were approximately 3,000, 6,000, 8,000, and 11,000 steps.

The researchers found that clinically relevant improvements in quality of life rose with step count but plateaued at higher activity levels, at around 8,000 steps per day. In other words, the largest quality-of-life differences appeared between the least active and moderately active patients, while gains flattened beyond that threshold. Patients in the lowest step-count quartile differed from those in the highest in several ways: they were older, more often male, more likely to be overweight or current smokers, more likely to report two or more comorbidities or a multiple myeloma diagnosis, and less likely to have higher education or income.

Quantitatively, every additional 1,000 steps per day was associated with statistically significant improvements on several EORTC scales: physical functioning (β=1.0, p<0.001), role functioning (β=1.1, p=0.03), and global health status/quality of life (β=1.0, p<0.001), alongside significant reductions in fatigue (β=-0.9, p=0.03) and dyspnea (β=-1.1, p=0.01). Higher heart rate, in contrast, was associated with a greater symptom burden, indicating that the tracker-derived fitness measure carried information about patients’ overall health status.

The authors conclude that physical activity and general fitness or health status at diagnosis may be important predictors of maintaining health-related quality of life during the first year after a hematologic cancer diagnosis. They emphasize that the findings underscore the potential of wearable technology to inform supportive care and empower self-management, and that even small increases in daily steps may contribute to maintaining quality of life after diagnosis.

As an observational study, the research cannot establish that increasing steps causes better quality of life. The tracker subgroup was also smaller than the full questionnaire cohort, with 130 of the 314 patients wearing Fitbit devices, and the step-count quartiles differed in demographic and clinical characteristics such as age, comorbidities, and diagnosis type, which the statistical models sought to account for. Nevertheless, the study is notable for capturing continuous, objective activity data alongside repeated quality-of-life assessments in a population of patients with blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, during the first year after diagnosis.

Subject of Research: Associations between wearable-tracker-measured physical activity and quality of life in newly diagnosed hematologic cancer patients

Article Title: Assessing physical activity using Fitbit trackers and the association with quality of life among newly diagnosed patients with hematologic cancer

Article References: Ekels, A., Oerlemans, S., Kirsch, S., Issa, D. E., Hoogendoorn, M., Nijziel, M. R., Koster, A., de Jong, C. N., Achouiti, A., Thielen, N., Van Deun, K., Ezendam, N. P. M., Stuiver, M., Posthuma, E. F. M., & van de Poll-Franse, L. V. (2026). Assessing physical activity using Fitbit trackers and the association with quality of life among newly diagnosed patients with hematologic cancer. Journal of Cancer Survivorship. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-026-02139-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11764-026-02139-6

Keywords: hematologic cancer, physical activity, Fitbit, wearable trackers, quality of life, daily steps, heart rate, EORTC QLQ-C30, cancer survivorship, observational cohort, fatigue, multiple myeloma