The SMILE scale: a wellness behavioral tool for patients with cancer

As cancer survivorship increases, there is a need for simple tools to measure and promote healthy behaviors. We created a wellness behavioral tool (the SMILE Scale) to encourage self-monitoring of wellness behaviors. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of collecting daily self-reported SMILE Scale data and weekly quality of life data among patients with cancer. We also aimed to measure the association between SMILE Scale responses and validated health-related quality of life (HRQOL) tools (PROMIS-29 + 2 and SymTrak-8) as a pilot test of the hypothesis that increased wellness behaviors may impact quality of life.

We surveyed 100 patients with cancer at the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Participants were asked to complete daily SMILE Scale assessments over a two-week period, as well as weekly PROMIS-29 + 2 and SymTrak-8 surveys. The primary endpoint was the SMILE Scale completion rate. Secondary endpoints in this single-arm pilot study included correlations between the SMILE Scale and other HRQOL tools.

Daily completion rate of the SMILE Scale ranged from 57% to 65% of participants over a 14-day period. Among the 61% of participants who completed SMILE on day 1, 87% completed SMILE on 10 of 14 days. By end of study, participants who self-reported more wellness behaviors (i.e., higher daily SMILE scores) demonstrated significantly higher PROMIS physical health (p = 0.003), higher PROMIS mental health (p = 0.008), and lower (better) SymTrak total symptom burden (p = 0.006). Further, among those who completed at least 1 of 14 daily SMILE assessments, quality of life significantly improved over the two-week period for PROMIS mental health (p = 0.018) and SymTrak total symptom burden (p = 0.014).

The SMILE Scale completion rate did not satisfy our pre-planned ≥70% threshold for feasibility; however, the rate for completing SMILE at least once during the 14 days (77%) met this threshold. Participants with higher average daily SMILE scores had significantly better scores across other validated HRQOL tools. While these results may be correlative and not causative, this suggests a potential physical and mental health benefit for delivering the SMILE Scale in clinical practice to help encourage healthy behaviors and warrants testing the SMILE Scale's impact in future studies.