Abstract
Recent evidence highlights that physical activity (PA) is associated with decreased recurrence risk, improved survival and quality of life for breast cancer (BC) patients. Our study aimed to explore patterns of increased/decreased PA, and sedentary behaviors among BC women of the DianaWeb cohort during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, and examined the association with residential locations, work changes, different modality used to increase PA, and quality of life. The study analyzed the questionnaires completed by the 781 BC women (age 54.68 ± 8.75 years on both December 2019 and June 2020. Results showed a decrease of 22%, 57%, and 26% for walking activity, vigorous activity, and total PA, respectively. Sitting/lying time increased up to 54.2% of the subjects recruited. High quality of life was associated with lower odds of being sedentary (p = 0.003). Our findings suggest that innovative health management fostering compliance with current guidelines for PA and active behavior should be implemented, especially in unpredictable emergency conditions.
Highlights
Physical activity (PA) and exercise for breast cancer (BC) patients and survivors are emerging key elements in the oncological prevention spectrum
In this study: (i) we described PA behavior of the DianaWeb cohort during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) we made a comparison with data collected prior to lockdown, and (iii) we explored some factors that should be considered as moderators of PA, such as residential locations, living in an apartment building or in a dense living environment, BC clinical characteristics, or quality of life (QoL), through private chat created for the study
Patients in the two sub-cohorts were similar for age, marital status, level of education, and Italian region of residence
Summary
Physical activity (PA) and exercise for breast cancer (BC) patients and survivors are emerging key elements in the oncological prevention spectrum. In this regard, exercise oncology (i.e., exercise medicine in the management of cancer) represents an important option for patients during rehabilitation, aftercare, and survival [1], with the aim of making the patient more active in everyday life. Exercise can have a favorable impact on cancer- and treatment-related side effects (including fatigue, depression, and physical functioning) and quality of life (QoL) of cancer survivors. There are differences in outcomes depending on clinical setting of the BC patients and functional factors related to exercise, such as type, intensity, and activity level. There is a positive correlation between high level of cardiorespiratory fitness and probability of survival [4], a high level of activity is not necessarily associated with the best
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