Abstract
BackgroundEndometrial cancer survivors are at an increased risk of poor quality of life outcomes. Physical activity is positively associated with general quality of life in this population, however, little is known about how changes in physical activity may be associated with changes in specific aspects of quality of life. The aim of this secondary data analysis was to explore the relationships between change in physical activity and change in physical, mental, social, and other aspects of quality of life in endometrial cancer survivors receiving a physical activity intervention.MethodsEndometrial cancer survivors (N = 100) participated in a telephone-based physical activity intervention for six months. At baseline and post-intervention we measured physical activity via accelerometry and ecological momentary assessment, and quality of life via the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Quality of Life of Adult Cancer Survivors instrument, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Perceived Stress Scale. We conducted structural equation modeling path analyses to investigate how physical activity post-intervention was associated with the quality of life measures’ subscales post-intervention, adjusting for baseline levels and potentially confounding covariates.ResultsIncreasing physical activity was positively associated with improvements in general health (p = .044), role limitation due to physical health (p = .005), pain (p = .041), and somatic distress (p = .023). There was no evidence to indicate that change in physical activity was associated with change in other aspects of quality of life.ConclusionsEndometrial cancer survivors are at higher risk for suffering from challenges to physical quality of life, and findings from this study suggest that increasing physical activity may alleviate some of these problems. Further research is needed to determine whether other aspects of quality of life are linked to change in physical activity.Trial registrationTrial registration number: NCT00501761Name of registry: clinicaltrials.govDate of registration: July 16, 2007.Date of enrollment: June 16, 2005.
Highlights
Endometrial cancer is the fourth most common cancer among U.S women, and its high five-year survival rate has contributed to a large and growing population of survivors [1]
While evidence indicates that increasing physical activity can lead to improvements in quality of life in survivors of some types of cancer [9], there have been few studies that have investigated the nature of this relationship in endometrial cancer survivors [10–12]
Our findings are consistent with cross-sectional studies [54] and may provide some insight as to why previous randomized control trials with endometrial cancer survivors have produced mixed results regarding the impact of physical activity intervention on global quality of life [11, 12, 55]
Summary
Endometrial cancer is the fourth most common cancer among U.S women, and its high five-year survival rate has contributed to a large and growing population of survivors [1]. Endometrial cancer survivors suffer from high rates of obesity- and physical activity-related co-morbidities (e.g., type 2 diabetes) that are related to cancer-specific and overall mortality [4–7] This population faces marked challenges to quality of life outcomes, which are often linked to high rates of overweight and obesity and low adherence to health-protective lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity [8]. Quality of life is a multi-dimensional construct, and limited literature has investigated which specific aspects of endometrial cancer survivors’ quality of life may be impacted by increasing physical activity This population faces unique quality of life-related challenges, and a more comprehensive understanding of the potential benefits of increased physical activity is needed. The aim of this secondary data analysis was to explore the relationships between change in physical activity and change in physical, mental, social, and other aspects of quality of life in endometrial cancer survivors receiving a physical activity intervention
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