Physical Activity and Quality of Life in Women With Breast Cancer – A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer treatment can cause different side effects on the quality of life of women. Physical activity, in turn, can reduce these side effects. Objective: To investigate the physical activity and quality of life of women during and after breast cancer treatment. Methods: Sample of 174 women (57.0±9.5 years) during or after clinical treatment for breast cancer. Interview questionnaire composed of general information, physical activity (IPAQ short version) and quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30 and BR23). For statistical analysis chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test, student's t-test for independent samples, Mann-Whitney U test and multiple logistic regression analyses (p <0.05). Results: Most women did not achieve the physical activity guidelines, particularly those undergoing clinical treatment. Results showed longer walking time, moderate physical activity, vigorous physical activity, moderate + vigorous physical activity, and total physical activity among the women following completion of treatment. The quality of life scores were also higher among women after clinical treatment. Logistic regression indicated that every 10-minute increment to walking time results in a 19% decrease in the probability of worse functional capacity and a 26% decrease in the probability of worse symptoms associated with treatment side effects. Conclusion: During treatment, women with breast cancer undertake less physical activity and have worse quality of life. Walking appears to be an effective type of physical activity for these women, improving quality of life during and after breast cancer treatment. Level of evidence II; Prognostic studies - Investigation of the effect of patient characteristics on the disease outcome.

Congruence and trajectories of device-measured and self-reported physical activity during therapy for early breast cancer

“…Inferential statistics showed systematic effects of treatment group and time but not their interaction on self-reported PA minutes (Table 2). NC reported more activity minutes than AC (∆ = 69 min, p = 0.006, CI [19,119]) and NAC (∆ = 45 min, p = 0.038, CI [4,93]) which did not differ. Patients reported more activity minutes in week 3 than in week 18 (∆ = 43min, p = 0.010, CI [7,78]), other comparisons between weeks did not show significant differences.…”

“…In 2018, approximately 400,000 women in Europe received a breast cancer diagnosis [1]. Disease and treatment result in troubling concomitants and long-term effects [2][3][4][5]. Physical activity (PA) is linked to benefits regarding physical and psychological health [3][4][5][6][7] and is recommended from diagnosis.…”

“…Others use steps to quantify PA and adopt the popular recommendation of 10000 steps daily to patients [10] or transferred the ACSM suggestions into 6286 steps [11]. However, many patients do not meet these recommendations [4,[11][12][13], so further research is required to enhance understanding of the mechanisms underlying this discrepancy.…”

“…PA questionnaires are also common with cancer patients [3,4,6,12,13,[29][30][31][32][33]. Combination with activity trackers show patients seem more inclined towards overestimation [34][35][36] than underestimation [37].…”

Actividad física y calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en una comunidad académica

“…Entre los efectos favorables de la AF sobre la salud física se tienen: (a) reduce el inicio y la progresión de patologías; (b) se reconocen cambios en la adiposidad, la sensibilidad a la insulina, el control glucémico y la presión arterial (Bassuk y Manson, 2010;Sundberg, 2018); (c) contribuye a prevenir y tratar enfermedades cardiovasculares (Archer y Blair, 2011;Arena et al, 2018); (d) ayuda a controlar la obesidad; (e) reduce la incidencia de diabetes tipo II (Dankel, Loenneke y Loprinzi, 2017;Márquez-Rosa y Garatachea-Vallejo, 2010;Sargeant et al, 2018;Warburton et al, 2006); (f ) mejora signicativamente las capacidades condicionales (fuerza, resistencia, exibilidad, entre otros); y (g) reduce la pérdida ósea (Knoll et al, 2018;Oliveira et al, 2018). Además, recientes análisis han señalado que el ejercicio regular reduce el riesgo de cáncer y la reaparición de enfermedades (Boing et al, 2018;Helbrich, Friese y Härtl, 2019).…”