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Evaluating the relationship between physical activity and quality of life in a racially diverse sample of breast cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Physical activity (PA) has been shown to improve quality of life (QoL) in predominantly White cancer survivors. Very few studies have examined the association between PA and QoL among Black breast cancer survivors (BCS). We investigated the association between PA and multiple QoL domains and the effects of race on the proposed association in a racially diverse group of BCS.

Methods

This was an exploratory study using secondary data from a completed 12-month randomized controlled  trial (RCT). Mixed effects models were tested on a subset of participants in the control and exercise groups of the RCT. The primary outcomes were changes in the QoL domains (baseline to 12 months post baseline).

Results

There were 173 participants included in this analysis, averaging 59 years of age; about 33% of the participants were Black women. There were no significant differences in the QoL outcomes between the control and exercise groups at 12 months post baseline. Race was not a significant moderator. Exercise improved emotional/mental wellbeing and body image as it relates to social barriers at 12 months post baseline in Black and White BCS, but the changes in these outcomes were only statistically significant in White BCS (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Results show that exercise can improve multiple QoL domains over time in Black BCS. However, the significance of the effect on QoL was isolated to White BCS. The small sample size in Black women could constrain the statistical significance of observed effects. Future studies are warranted to assess associations between exercise and QoL in larger samples of Black women.

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Acknowledgements

Natasha Burse has moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since completing the research. This work is part of the first author’s dissertation. The authors would like to give special thanks to the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute for their assistance with this project.

Funding

The WISER Survivor trial was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54155850. Natasha Burse was supported by the  National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F99CA253762.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    Natasha Renee Burse, Erik Lehman, Vernon M. Chinchilli & Eugene J. Lengerich

  2. Epidemiology Program, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Yendelela L. Cuffee

  3. Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Linda A. Wray

  4. Penn State Cancer Institute, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA

    Eugene J. Lengerich

  5. Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Kathryn H. Schmitz

Authors
  1. Natasha Renee Burse
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  2. Erik Lehman
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Natasha Burse; Methodology: Natasha Burse, Erik Lehman, Vernon Chinchilli, and Kathryn Schmitz; Formal analysis and investigation: Natasha Burse and Erik Lehman; Data acquisition: Kathryn Schmitz; Writing original draft preparation: Natasha Burse; Writing-review and editing; Natasha Burse, Erik Lehman, Vernon Chinchilli, Yendelela Cuffee, Linda Wray, Eugene Lengerich, and Kathryn Schmitz. Supervision: Kathryn Schmitz and Vernon Chinchilli. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Natasha Renee Burse.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The WISER Survivor trial was approved by the IRB of the University of Pennsylvania. The current study was approved by the IRB of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine (STUDY00014712).

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

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Not applicable.

Code availability

The SAS code will not be made available.

Informed consent

The study participants provided signed informed consent and a written clearance from their doctors to participate in the WISER Survivor trial. Informed consent was not obtained in the current study because the research involves no more than minimal risk to subjects and no procedures for which written consent is normally required outside of the research context.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Disclaimer

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F99CA253762 and U54155850. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Burse, N.R., Lehman, E., Chinchilli, V.M. et al. Evaluating the relationship between physical activity and quality of life in a racially diverse sample of breast cancer survivors. Support Care Cancer 32, 122 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-024-08310-y

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