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Physical activity intervention benefits persist months post-intervention: randomized trial in breast cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Determine durable effects of the 3-month Better Exercise Adherence after Treatment for Cancer (BEAT Cancer) physical activity (PA) behavior change intervention 12 months post-baseline (i.e., 9 months after intervention completion).

Methods

This 2-arm multicenter trial randomized 222 post-primary treatment breast cancer survivors to BEAT Cancer (individualized exercise and group education) vs. usual care (written materials). Assessments occurred at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months, with the 12 months assessment reported here. Measures included PA (accelerometer, self-report), cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, body mass index, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT), SF-36, fatigue, depression, anxiety, satisfaction with life, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), lower extremity joint dysfunction, and perceived memory.

Results

Adjusted linear mixed-model analyses demonstrated statistically significant month 12 between-group differences favoring BEAT Cancer for weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous self-report PA (mean between-group difference (M) = 44; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 12 to 76; p = .001), fitness (M = 1.5 ml/kg/min; CI = 0.4 to 2.6; p = .01), FACT-General (M = 3.5; CI = 0.7 to 6.3; p = .014), FACT-Breast (M = 3.6; CI = 0.1 to 7.1; p = .044), social well-being (M = 1.3; CI = 0.1 to 2.5; p = .037), functional well-being (M = 1.2; CI = 0.2 to 2.3; p = .023), SF-36 vitality (M = 6.1; CI = 1.4 to 10.8; p = .011), fatigue (M =  − 0.7; CI =  − 1.1 to − 0.2; p = .004), satisfaction with life (M = 1.9; CI = 0.3 to 3.5; p = .019), sleep duration (M =  − 0.2; CI =  − 0.4 to − 0.03, p = .028), and memory (M = 1.1; CI = 0.2 to 2.1; p = .024).

Conclusions

A 3-month PA intervention resulted in statistically significant and clinically important benefits compared to usual care at 12 months.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

Three months of individualized and group PA counseling causes benefits detectable 9 months later.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00929617 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00929617; registered June 29, 2009).

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants, staff, and trainees who contributed their time and effort to helping make this project possible. We also thank Lingling Wang for assisting with the data presentation for this manuscript. Results have been presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01CA136859 and P30DK056336).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Ave S, MT 614, AL, 35294-4410, Birmingham, USA

    Laura Q. Rogers & Robert A. Oster

  2. Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Kerry S. Courneya

  3. Department of Kinesiology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA

    Philip M. Anton

  4. Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Siobhan Phillips

  5. Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Diane K. Ehlers

  6. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Edward McAuley

  7. Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Edward McAuley

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  1. Laura Q. Rogers
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Contributions

LQR, KSC, PMA, and EM made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the work. RO, PMA, SP, and DE made substantial contributions to the data acquisition. LQR, KSC, and RO made substantial contributions to the data analysis. All authors made substantial contributions to data interpretation. LQR wrote the initial manuscript draft with the remaining coauthors providing substantial contributions to subsequent drafts. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Q. Rogers.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All study procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its amendments or comparable ethical standards. The proposal was approved by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Institutional Review Boards for Human Use (protocol numbers F121114008, 09707, and 08–022, respectively). Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Rogers, L.Q., Courneya, K.S., Oster, R.A. et al. Physical activity intervention benefits persist months post-intervention: randomized trial in breast cancer survivors. J Cancer Surviv 17, 1834–1846 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-022-01329-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-022-01329-2

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