What Do Breast Cancer Survivors Expect From Exercise?
Rachel Hirschey, Wei Pan, Marilyn Hockenberry and 3 others
PMID 30085945WHAT IT FOUND
Breast cancer survivors rated exercise outcomes as important but thought about them only sometimes.
They prioritized physical outcomes such as recurrence risk, general health, and heart health over psychological and social benefits.
Key findings
01Survivors thought about exercise outcomes at an average of 4.8, which the paper describes as sometimes or about 50% of the time.
02Outcomes above the average accessibility score included general health, recurrence risk, feeling good physically, disease risk, feeling good mentally, weight, control over health, heart health, longevity, and other cancer risk.
03Survivors rated exercise outcomes as important overall, with an average of 6.1, and items above that average included recurrence, other cancer and disease risk reduction, feeling good mentally and physically, heart, bone, and general health, longevity, control over health, and less tension/stress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study did not measure outcome expectation certainty, so comparisons across all three dimensions are limited. The measure was modified and tested only in this sample, so it needs refinement in larger samples. Most participants were White, so the findings may not apply to other racial and ethnic groups. Only early stage survivors were included, and the response rate was low. Generalizability is limited. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that counseling based on these expectations increases exercise.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that telling survivors about exercise benefits will increase their exercise. This survey measured how often survivors thought about outcomes and how much they valued them, not exercise behavior or the effect of any counseling strategy.