The Effectiveness of Mind-Body Exercise on Health-Related Quality of Life and Mental Health During and After Breast Cancer Treatment: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses for Randomized Controlled Trials.
Jingsi Wen, Stanley Sai-Chuen Hui, Edwin Chun-Yip Chin and 2 others
PMID 40090889WHAT IT FOUND
Yoga had the strongest evidence for reducing depression in breast cancer patients and survivors.
Evidence for quality of life, fatigue, anxiety and sleep was weak or unclear, so do not expect broad benefits.
Key findings
01Yoga for reducing depression symptoms was the only finding supported by convincing evidence.
02Most other mind-body exercise outcomes were supported only by weak evidence or were not significant.
03The included meta-analyses were rated low or critically low methodological quality.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Three included meta-analyses were rated low quality and six were rated critically low quality. High heterogeneity was present in 13 meta-analyses. Only three of the 16 meta-analyses had over 1000 breast cancer cases. The review used immediate post-intervention or pre-post change data and excluded follow-up data. Some interventions combined mind-body exercise with usual care or medical treatment. Pilates, dance and traditional Chinese exercises were underrepresented in the included evidence. Most primary randomised trials were small, single-centre studies focused on Chinese participants.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding came from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Yunnan Provincial Basic Research Program.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that all mind-body exercises improve quality of life, fatigue, anxiety or sleep. Only Yoga for depression had convincing evidence, and most other results were weak or not significant.