Achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight, staying physically active and maintaining a healthy diet improved survival after cancer diagnosis in an elderly female cancer survivor population, according to a study.
These steps gave survivors "an almost 40% lower risk for death compared with women who do not follow these recommendations," Maki Inoue-Choi, PhD, RD, research associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, said in a news release.
Study participants included 2,080 women from the Iowa Women’s Health Study who had a confirmed cancer diagnosis between 1986 and 2002 and who completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2004. Women provided information on body weight, physical activity level, dietary intake and other demographic and lifestyle factors.
Through annual linkage with the State of Health Registry of Iowa and the National Death Index, researchers identified 495 deaths from 2004 to 2009, including 197 from cancer and 153 from cardiovascular disease. They adjusted for age, number of comorbid conditions, general health, smoking, type and stage of cancer, current cancer treatment and subsequent cancer diagnosis.
They found all-cause mortality was 37% lower for women with the highest (6 to 8) versus the lowest (0 to 4) adherence scores based on the 2007 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research guidelines for body weight, physical activity and diet.
Reaching the WCRF/AICR physical activity recommendation also was associated with lower risk for death from any cause, from cardiovascular disease or from cancer after the researchers adjusted for dietary and body weight recommendation adherence scores and other factors.
However, reaching the dietary recommendations was not associated with mortality following adjustment for body weight and physical activity recommendation adherence scores.
The data was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, Oct. 16-19 in Anaheim, Calif. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
These steps gave survivors "an almost 40% lower risk for death compared with women who do not follow these recommendations," Maki Inoue-Choi, PhD, RD, research associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, said in a news release.
Study participants included 2,080 women from the Iowa Women’s Health Study who had a confirmed cancer diagnosis between 1986 and 2002 and who completed a follow-up questionnaire in 2004. Women provided information on body weight, physical activity level, dietary intake and other demographic and lifestyle factors.
Through annual linkage with the State of Health Registry of Iowa and the National Death Index, researchers identified 495 deaths from 2004 to 2009, including 197 from cancer and 153 from cardiovascular disease. They adjusted for age, number of comorbid conditions, general health, smoking, type and stage of cancer, current cancer treatment and subsequent cancer diagnosis.
They found all-cause mortality was 37% lower for women with the highest (6 to 8) versus the lowest (0 to 4) adherence scores based on the 2007 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research guidelines for body weight, physical activity and diet.
Reaching the WCRF/AICR physical activity recommendation also was associated with lower risk for death from any cause, from cardiovascular disease or from cancer after the researchers adjusted for dietary and body weight recommendation adherence scores and other factors.
However, reaching the dietary recommendations was not associated with mortality following adjustment for body weight and physical activity recommendation adherence scores.
The data was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, Oct. 16-19 in Anaheim, Calif. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
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