Objectively measured physical activity among breast cancer survivors in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

• Main Authors: Sharifah Wajihah Wafa, Syed Saadun Tarek Wafa, Lin, L.P, Mohd Razif, S, Aryati, Ahmad, Noor Aini, Mohd Yusoff
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: R Medicine (General); RA Public aspects of medicine
• Online Access: http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/737/1/FH03-FSK-17-09171.pdf; http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/737/
• Institution: Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin

The rationale for recommendation of physical activity in cancer survivors relates to minimizing the biological processes associated with cancer promotion and enhancing behavioural changes linked with minimising lifestyle risk factors for cancer recurrence. This study aims to measure physical activity objectively among breast cancer survivors. A cross-sectional study involving 60 breast cancer survivors was carried out in two main government referral hospitals in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Participants wore an activPAL monitor for seven consecutive days on the midpoint of the anterior aspect of the right thigh. The activPAL directly records total time spent sitting or lying, standing and stepping every 15 seconds and number of steps per day. Participants were required to provide at least four days of valid data (including one weekend day) for their data to be included in the analysis. A valid day was considered to be 600 minutes or more of recording during waking hours (i.e. from 6 am to 11 pm).The mean age and BMI of breast cancer survivors were 54.0 + 7.5 years and 27.9 x 4.9 kg/m2, respectively. The majority of the survivors were diagnosed at stage 2 (58.3%). Most of their daily time were spent sitting/ lying/sleeping (16.61 I 1.93 hours/day; 69.2o/o) compared to standing (5.35 +_ 1.55 hours/ day; 22.3%) and stepping (1.8a t 0.61 hours/day; 7.7%1. The total steps among survivors were 6583 t 2326 steps/day and the total sleeping hours were 5.97 t 1.09 hours/day. Mean step counts per day were then classified into four categories i.e. sedentary lifestyle (2I .7%), low active (43.3%), somewhat active (28.3oh), active (6.7%). None were categorised as highly active. A small proportion of survivors (6.7%) met the physical activity recommendation (>10,000 steps/day). The physical activity pattern was comparable between weekdays and weekends (p>0.05). However, there was a significant difference in total steps per day between weekdays and weekends (7561 steps vs. 7861 steps; p<0.001). In conclusion, breast cancer survivors spent most of their waking hours doing sedentary activities. Strategies to displace sitting or lying with stepping or standing, increasing number of breaks from sedentary activit5r, and reducing sedentary bouts might be beneficial in increasing survivorship and preventing cancer recurrence.