Digital Health Monitoring Aims to Reduce Diabetes Risk in Childhood Cancer Survivors

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington are collaborating with a prominent national cancer center to investigate how wearable technology can assist childhood cancer survivors in mitigating long-term health issues, specifically diabetes and heart disease.

Yue Liao, an assistant professor of kinesiology at UT Arlington, has contributed to a review published in the journal Cancer, which highlights the increased risk of chronic health conditions that childhood cancer survivors face. The article discusses how digital health tools could facilitate earlier detection and potentially prevent these diseases.

According to Liao, wearable sensors provide the ability to continuously monitor various health indicators, including blood glucose levels, vital signs, and even mood over extended periods. This continuous monitoring offers insights into disease risk and behavioral patterns that traditional clinical visits, which typically rely on sporadic measurements, cannot provide.

The review identifies two crucial strategies for employing digital health tools in intervention programs:

• Integrating real-time data from wearable sensors to complement traditional health metrics, which may reveal new indicators of risk.
• Adjusting diabetes risk assessments specifically for childhood cancer survivors, who are at a heightened risk compared to their peers, by utilizing technology to gather more personalized data.

Liao's expertise in this field is notable. At UT Arlington, she directs the Physical Activity and Wearable Sensors Lab, which focuses on leveraging mobile technology and wearables to track daily behaviors such as exercise, nutrition, and sleep patterns. Her previous experience includes a postdoctoral fellowship and instructorship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

She emphasized that the approach to health interventions for childhood cancer survivors differs significantly from those designed for adults, primarily due to their longer life expectancy. This extended survivorship presents unique challenges regarding the risk of aging-related diseases.

Interestingly, Liao noted that younger survivors might be more open to engaging with digital health programs, particularly those that seamlessly integrate with existing technology they use. She stated, "A significant amount of health-related data is already being generated; thus, the challenge lies in responsibly utilizing this information to promote health and prevent diseases."

For further details, see the original article by Rusha Bhandari et al. titled "The role of body composition in the development of diabetes mellitus among childhood cancer survivors, and novel intervention strategies to mitigate diabetes risk," published in Cancer.