Dietary and Physical Activity Interventions for Colorectal Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

There has been evidence on the protective effects of diets high in fiber and low in red and processed meat (RPM), and physical activity (PA) against colorectal cancer (CRC) development, but that against CRC recurrence has been limited. This study evaluated the efficacy of a behavioral program comprising dietary and PA interventions in improving Chinese CRC survivors’ lifestyle. A 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial of 223 CRC patients (82 females, mean age 65), randomly assigned to receive dietary, PA or both interventions, or usual care for 12 months, and assessed every 6 months for 24 months. Primary outcomes included two dietary and two PA targets. Secondary outcomes included changes in dietary consumptions and PA levels. Dietary interventions significantly increased the odds of achieving the targets of consuming less RPM at all time-points (OR 3.22–4.57, all p < 0.01) and refined grain (RG) at months 6 (OR 3.13, p = 0.002) and 24 (OR 2.19, p = 0.039), and reduced RPM (2.49–3.48 servings/week, all p < 0.01) and RG (0.31–0.5 servings/day, all p < 0.01) consumptions. Patients receiving PA interventions potentially spent more time on moderate-to-vigorous PA. This study demonstrated the efficacy of a behavioral program in improving dietary habits of Chinese CRC survivors.

Healthy eating interventions in adults living with and beyond colorectal cancer: a systematic review

“…Lee et al . showed that consumption decreased in both groups at 24 months (control 7 servings per week versus intervention 4.6 servings per week, P < 0.001).…”

“…One study combined groups of PA with dietary advice or dietary advice for the intervention and usual care or PA advice alone for control group. Lee et al .…”

“…Seven studies were identified, including six RCTs (13,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) ( Table 1) and one RCT protocol (21) (Table 2). The studies were undertaken in Australia (n = 1) (20) , UK (n = 1) (16) , USA (n = 2) (18,19) , South Korea (n = 1) (17) and Hong Kong (n = 1) (13) and the protocol was from Norway (n = 1) (21) . One study was multicentred (13) , one was single-centred (16) and the remaining four were conducted by telephone or mail (17)(18)(19)(20) .…”

“…All six studies had a diet component as an outcome. Four of six studies reported quality of life (QOL) (13,16,17,20) as an outcome. Four of six studies reported changes in anthropometrics (16,(18)(19)(20) as an outcome.…”

“…All six studies reported randomised sequence generation and allocation concealment, with five explaining how this was performed (13,(16)(17)(18)20) . Two out of the six studies (16,19) blinded the interviewers to the participants' assigned groups.…”