Table 2 Outcome measures

Quality of Life

• Promis-29 [67]. 29 items consisting of self-reported health measures in the domains of physical health, mental health and social health.

Depression

• Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) [68]. 9 items measuring depression and used to grade severity of symptoms.

Fatigue

• Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) [69]. 9 items measuring the severity of fatigue and the impact of fatigue on daily functioning in the past 24 hours.

Caregiver Fear of Recurrence

• Fear of Recurrence-Caregiver version (FOR) [70, 71]. 22 items measuring the amount of worry and concern cancer caregivers have about the cancer recurring.

Anxiety

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) [72, 73]. A 7-item tool used for screening, diagnosis and severity assessment of anxiety disorder.

Sleep Disturbances

• Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) [74]. 19 items measuring patients’ sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, sleeping medication use, and daytime dysfunction over the past month.

Perceived Social Support

• Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) [75]. A 12-item scale designed to measure perceived social support from three sources; Family, Friends and a Significant Other.

Perceived Stress

• Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) [76]. A 10-item psychological instrument measuring the perception of stress.

Caregiver Burden

• Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS) [77]. 22 items measuring the impact of caregiving on three dimensions of burden: objective, subjective demand, and subjective stress.

Physical activity

• Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire [78]. 4 items measuring the frequency of light-intensity, moderate-intensity, and vigorous-intensity leisure-time physical activity.

Exercise self-efficacy

• Self-Efficacy Scale [79]. 9 items measuring self-efficacy expectations related to the ability to continue exercising in the face of barriers to exercise.

• Grip strength

• Strength of the dominant hand will be measured using a Jamar hydraulic hand dynamometer (Patterson Medical – Canada, Mississauga, ON, Canada) [80].

• Digit span

• Participant repeats a series of numbers the researcher says out loud; repetition is first forwards and then backwards. The trial is failed after two incorrect attempts in one test by the participant [81].

• Trail Making Test

• Participants complete tests A and B. For the Part A test the subject draws lines connecting circles containing the numbers 1–25 in ascending order; for Part B subject craws line connecting corresponding numbers and letters of the alphabet. Subject must not lift pen from paper or the trial is failed. Both trials are timed [82].

• Timed-Up-and-Go

• The Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) test is a simple and widely used measure of mobility that measures the time it takes to stand up from a chair, walk 3 m, turn around an obstacle, walk back, and sit down [83].