Association between Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity among Breast Cancer Survivors: A Longitudinal Study.

Angela J Fong,Jennifer Brunet,Catherine M Sabiston,Jordan D Kurth,Steve Amireault

doi:10.3390/curroncol28060422

Abstract

This study examines the association between rates of change in daily fruit and vegetable intake and in weekly levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) over a 15-month period in women following primary treatment completion for breast cancer. Breast cancer survivors (N = 199) self-reported fruit and vegetable intake and wore an accelerometer for 7 consecutive days to measure levels of MVPA on five occasions every 3 months. Multivariate latent growth modeling revealed that the rate of change in fruit and vegetable intake was not associated with the rate of change in levels of MVPA. Baseline (Mean = 3.46 months post-treatment) levels of MVPA were not associated with the rate of change of daily fruit and vegetable intake; likewise, baseline fruit and vegetable intake was not associated with the rate of change in levels of MVPA. Behavioral interventions promoting fruit and vegetable intake should not be assumed to yield concomitant effects in promoting MVPA or vice versa.

Highlights

Unhealthy dietary behaviors and physical inactivity are common in adults during and after treatment for cancer [1,2,3,4,5]
The levels at which behaviors should be associated and the level at which the covariation between these behaviors has generally been examined is incongruent. This incongruence poses problems because it is not possible to draw conclusion on how these variables are related within-persons from between-person associations [36]. To address this knowledge gap, the current study focuses on the within-person association between daily fruit and vegetable intake and weekly levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) in women diagnosed with and recently treated for breast cancer
The rate of change in fruit and vegetable intake was not associated with the rate of change in levels of MVPA

Summary

Introduction

Unhealthy dietary behaviors and physical inactivity are common in adults during and after treatment for cancer [1,2,3,4,5]. The higher-level goals (or global health) hypothesis suggests that higherlevel goals, especially those that are emotionally relevant and require the adoption of multiple behaviors to increase the chances of success (e.g., to change body weight, reduce risk of cancer recurrence and cardiovascular disease), can motivate the adoption of two or more specific behaviors Application of these two theoretical perspectives is limited [20,21,22], they both suggest that cancer survivors’ early fruit and vegetable intake and early engagement in MVPA may go beyond helping to increase or maintain these respective behaviors, but affect their participation in other health behaviors

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Conclusion