Dietary Changes After Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Associations with Physical Activity, Anthropometry, and Health-related Quality of life Among Korean Breast Cancer Survivors / 대한지역사회영양학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to examine levels of physical activity, anthropometric features, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among Korean breast cancer survivors who reported changes in their diet after diagnosis. METHODS: A total of 380 women who had been diagnosed with stage I to III breast cancer and had breast cancer surgery at least six months before the interview were included. Participants provided information on dietary change after diagnosis, post-diagnostic diet, physical activity, anthropometric measures, and HRQoL through face-to-face interview. We assessed HRQoL levels of breast cancer survivors using a validated Korean version of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and Breast Cancer Module (BR23). We used the logistic regression and generalized linear models to identify the associations of dietary changes in relation with physical activity, anthropometry, and HRQoL. RESULTS: The majority of participants (72.6%) reported that they have changed their diet to a healthier diet after diagnosis. Breast cancer survivors who reported to have change to a healthy diet had higher intakes of vegetables and fruits and lower intakes of red and processed meats, and refined grains than those who did not. Also, survivors with a healthy change in their diet were more likely to engage in physical activity (top vs. bottom tertile: odds ratio [OR], 1.85; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.02-3.36) and have lower body mass index (BMI) (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.98 for one kg/m² increment in BMI) compared to those who did not. We found that a healthy change in diet was associated with higher scores of physical functioning (p=0.02) and lower scores of constipation (p=0.04) and diarrhea (p=0.006) compared to those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy changes in diet after breast cancer diagnosis may be associated with lower levels of BMI, and higher levels of physical activity and HRQoL.