Adherence to Health-Related Lifestyle Behavior Recommendations and Association with Quality of Life among Cancer Survivors and Age-Matched Controls in Korea

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between lifestyle behavior and qualityof life (QoL) among cancer survivors in Korea.
Methods: Data for a total of 471 (173 men, 298 women)cancer survivors (CS) over 40 years old were obtained from the database of the 4th Korean National Healthand Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV). An identical number of subjects of the same age, sex,and education who had no restrictions in physical activity were randomly selected from the database andrepresented the control group (CG). Drinking, smoking, and exercise behavior were assessed.
Results: Thenumber of heavy drinkers was lower in CS (9.4%) than in CG (15.8%) (p < .01); similarly, there were fewersmokers in CS (9.1%) than in CG (14.0%) (p < .05). The percentage of individuals engaging in vigorous,moderate, and low-intensity exercise did not differ between CS (13.6%, 14.7%, and 50.0%) and CG (14.3%,13.4%, and 49.7%, respectively). No differences in Euro QoL Questionnaire 5-Dimensional Classification(EQ-5D) scores on both drinking and smoking behaviors were noted. Compared to the non-exercisers, thelow-intensity exercisers in CG (0.91 ± 0.10 vs. 0.94 ± 0.09), vigorous-intensity exercisers in CS (0.84 ± 0.62vs. 0.91 ± 0.11), and low-intensity exercisers in CS (0.82 ± 0.22 vs. 0.88±0.13) scored higher on the EQ-5D.
Conclusions: Although cancer survivors practiced more conscious health behavior in drinking and smoking,their engagement in exercise did not differ from that of non-cancer survivors. Since exercise engagementincreases QoL in general, implementation of an educational program that promotes exercise engagement incancer survivors may be required.