Depression and quality of life in cancer survivors: is there a relationship with physical activity?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evidence is growing on the benefit of physical activity to improve well-being following a cancer diagnosis. This study examined changes in physical activity from pre to post diagnosis and explored this relationship with quality of life and depression.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were recruited by posters and by letter of invitation. The questionnaire was completed by 59 prostate and 32 breast cancer survivors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Physical activity decreased by 72 minutes per week from pre to post diagnosis, although 20.9% reported having increased activity post diagnosis. Over 30% were considered depressed. Breast cancer participants who increased physical activity post diagnosis reported higher scores for Physical Wellbeing subscale (26 versus 21; F[1,29] = 5.19, p < .03), Emotional Wellbeing subscale (22 versus 19; F[1,30] = 4.57, p < .04) and Functional Wellbeing subscale (26 versus 19; F[1,30] = 9.03, p < .001). A greater proportion of participants taking part in no physical activity were depressed (55.6%; χ²= 6.83, p < .04).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Over 25% of participants identified with emotional and/or well being problems, and more than half reported insufficient physical activity to yield benefits. Future research needs to gain a better understanding of why cancer survivors decrease their physical activity following a cancer diagnosis and what is necessary for them in order to retain or increase their physical activity.</p

Environmental correlates of adults\u27 walking behaviour

Physical inactivity is associated with increased risk of developing chronic diseases. evidence linking physical activity and health outcomes has led to the development of national physical activity guidelines, which focus on moderate-intensity activities.Walking is the most commonly reported moderate-intensity activity and is arguably the most relevant activity for public health interventions targeting adults. Public health strategies to increase participation in physical activity are now starting focus on supportive factors in the physical environment. A behaviour-specific ecological approach was taken in this thesis. Ecological models of physical activity behaviour identify multiple levels of influence from intrapersonal, interpersonal, social and broader environmental domains, with particular attention to the physical environment. A literature review of studies that assessed associations of environmental attributes physical activity found research on environmental influences shows promise to identify significant and potentially modifiable influences on physical activity in general, and specific to walking behaviour. Studies were found to be limited to cross-sectional design and a need was identified for both prospective and intervention studies in order to advance the field. The main aims of this thesis were to develop and test measures of perceptions of environmental attributes; to examine cross-sectional relationships of perceptions of environmental attributes and an objective measure of location with walking behaviour and, to examine prospective relationships of changes in environmental perceptions with changes in walking behaviour. The studies of these relationships are reported for a workplace sample in Part 3 and for a community sample in Part 4. The cross-sectional study of Part 3 found for men, significant positive relationships \u27aesthetics\u27 \u27convenience\u27 \u27access\u27 to services, and for coastal place of residence with neighbourhood walking; and a negative relationship emerged for \u27traffic\u27 as a problem with neighbourhood walking. For women, a significant positive relationship was reported for \u27convenience\u27 and a negative relationship with \u27access\u27 to services with neighbourhood walking. Fewer significant relationships were found for total walking and total physical activity. The prospective study of Part 3 found for men, improved perceptions of \u27convenience\u27 and \u27aesthetics\u27 were positively associated with increased neighbourhood walking, and improved perceptions of \u27access\u27 to services were negatively associated with increased walking. For women, improved perceptions of \u27convenience\u27 and \u27traffic\u27 were positively associated with increased neighbourhood walking. Part 4 expanded on the studies of Part 3 by increasing the range of perceptions of the environment measured, and by examining a greater number differentiated walking outcome measures including: neighbourhood walking, walking for exercise, pleasure and walking to get to and from places. A principal components analysis found four main factors underlying the items measuring environmental attributes, these were: \u27aesthetics\u27 \u27accessibility\u27 \u27safety\u27 and \u27weather\u27. The cross-sectional study of Part 4, found more significant relationships of environmental perceptions with walking for men compared to women. In this study, living in a coastal location was associated with w o m e n being more likely to do more neighbourhood walking. Different environmental attribute categories were found related to different types of walking. \u27Weather\u27, \u27aesthetics\u27, \u27accessibility\u27 and \u27location\u27 were associated with neighbourhood walking. \u27Weather\u27 and \u27aesthetics\u27 were found to be associated with Walking for exercise. \u27Safety\u27 and \u27accessibility\u27 were associated with walking for pleasure. None of the environmental attributes were found to be associated with walking to get to and from place to places. Results for the prospective study of Part 4 found baseline perceptions of environmental attributes were related to perceptions at follow-up, but not at a multivariate level of analysis. Changes in perceptions of the neighbourhood environment over time were not found to be associated with changes in any of the four walking outcomes. The variation in findings of the two prospective studies may be due to differences between the samples in age, educational attainment, methods of assessment and sample size. The diverse directions of association emphasize that further work is needed on the development and refining of measures of perceptions of the environment. Future research should also compare measures of perceptions with objectively measured environmental attributes to provide evidence of validity for self-report perceptions. strong gender differences found in the studies of this thesis highlight the need to carry out gender-specific analyses in physical activity studies. This thesis has overall, given support to the importance of examining the influence of environmental factors on adults\u27 walking behaviour. It is recommended that future research now needs to go beyond looking at environmental variables on their own, and include the strongest individual and social factors in future multi-level prospective studies. Even if small amounts of variance in physical activity are explained by environmental factors, these many small effects across communities could accumulate to mean substantial physical activity changes across populations

\u27I don\u27t really know, so it\u27s a guess\u27: women\u27s reasons for breast cancer risk estimation.

Women of all ages have been found to overestimate both the incidence and the mortality rate from breast cancer and the reasons for this are unclear. A qualitative study asked eighty three women (mean age = 44 years) how likely they thought they were to get breast cancer and to explain the reasoning behind their choice. Based on their responses, women\u27s perceptions were categorised as: no risk (5%); reasonably accurate (30%); overestimated (22%); and greatly overestimated (43%). Four main themes emerged from the reasons given: \u27Don\u27t know/guess\u27, \u27family history\u27 of breast cancer, \u27age\u27 related reasoning, and making their decision from the information sheet read prior to answering the questions. The information currently available to women may be creating falsely high estimates of their risk of developing breast cancer as the risk factors of age and family history appear to be poorly understood. Meaningful communication of health risk in need of further improvement if it is to be useful in changing health related knowledge and behaviours

Evaluating the impact of the environment on the physical activity levels of people with dementia in aged care facilities

To evaluate the impact of the environment on the physical activity levels of people with dementia living in residential aged care facilitie

Review and critique of the quality of exercise recommendations for cancer patients and survivors

The benefit of exercise for cancer patients is starting to become recognized. The purposes of this paper were to review the literature to examine whether research findings are being converted into guidelines for patients and survivors and to examine the quality of evidence on which they were based. A computer search of major health databases was conducted for peer-reviewed literature and books on exercise and cancer, and an Internet search was conducted for cancer websites reporting any exercise guidelines/recommendations for cancer patients. Seven peer-reviewed articles, eight books and eight cancer websites were identified that suggested exercise guidelines for cancer patients and survivors. None of the published guidelines identified appeared to have been developed via a process that would allow them to be cited as evidence-based guidelines. Based on the studies to date, no direct cancer-specific evidence about the best type, frequency, duration or intensity of exercise is currently available in the peer-reviewed literature. It is currently not known what would be most beneficial for which cancers, at which stage of disease or treatment. Given the current interest in cancer and exercise, there is an urgent need for an evidence-based set of exercise guidelines to be developed