Do Activity Patterns And Body Weight Change After A Cancer Diagnosis? A Retrospective Cohort Study

Introduction: Increased physical activity (PA) levels and a healthy body weight (BW) are associated with improved health outcomes, decreased fatigue and an improved quality of life in cancer survivors. The aim of this study was to determine what impact (if any) a cancer diagnosis would have on survivors’ activity levels and body weight. Materials and Methods: Changes in PA patterns and BW throughout the first 12 months after diagnosis were assessed using a self-reported questionnaire. One hundred and sixty participants commenced the 15 question self-reported retrospective questionnaire and 90 complete data sets were analysed. Results: There were significant decreases in self-reported PA patterns in the 12 months post diagnosis, when compared with pre diagnosis patterns. Sixty percent of participant’s reported an increase in their BW in the 12 month post diagnosis period. Participants reported increasing sleep duration from 7.61± 1.02 h to 9.02± 2.16 h (p<0.01) and increased their time spent doing sedentary activities from 8.23± 3.30 h to 9.31± 3.25 h (p=0.03) per day. Participants decreased their vigorous PA levels from 1.28± 1.86 h to 0.60 ± 1.17 h (p<0.01), and their light PA levels from 5.00± 2.79 hto 3.6± 2.26 h (p<0.01) per day. Conclusion: This study sought to investigate whether PA patterns and BW change following a cancer diagnosis. Results suggest that in the 12 months post-diagnosis, cancer survivors increased their sleep time and reduced their levels of both vigorous and light PA. This may or may not be related to the increases in BW, which was observed for 60% of the participants.