04 November 2022
2 minutes of reading
Source/Disclosures
Published by:
Robertson DS, et al. Abstract 13. Presented at: International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America; November 4 and 5, 2022; Austin, Texas.
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Physical activity or exercise appeared to be associated with better mental and physical health among people with kidney cancer, according to the study results.
The findings, presented at the International Symposium on Kidney Cancer: North America, demonstrate the importance of these modifiable behaviors as potential strategies to improve quality of life for patients or survivors, the researchers concluded.
“Also, physical activity can mitigate or prevent some of the well-known [adverse] Effects associated with the diagnosis and treatment of kidney cancer. Dr. Daniel S. Roberson, resident in the department of surgery at Penn Medicine, and colleagues wrote.
Diagnosis and treatment of kidney cancer can have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. It’s essential for doctors to think about potentially modifiable behaviors that can help improve quality of life, according to the study’s background.
Roberson and colleagues used the National Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone health survey system, to conduct a retrospective cross-sectional study designed to assess the effect of self-reported exercise and physical activity in people with kidney cancer.
The researchers reviewed data from more than 2.1 million survey participants between 2016 and 2020.
The analysis included 576 participants (mean age, 66.6 years) who self-reported a diagnosis of kidney cancer. More than half (56.5%) had completed treatment, 12.1% reported being on active treatment, 6.8% indicated that they had not started treatment, and 20% reported that treatment had not been necessary .
The researchers hypothesized that a lack of exercise and physical activity would be associated with poorer physical and mental health. They tested their hypothesis with a multivariate logistic regression model analysis that examined the percentage of patients who reported 14 or more days in which their mental health or physical health was not good. The researchers adjusted for sex, age, treatment status, marital status, income, BMI, and smoking.
More than half (62.3%) of study participants reported exercising or being physically active in the previous 30 days.
Nearly a third (30.2%) of study participants reported experiencing 14 or more days when their physical health was poor, and 12.9% reported experiencing 14 or more days when their mental health was poor. it was not good.
Those who reported exercise or physical activity in the previous 30 days seemed significantly less likely to report worse mental health status (OR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.2-0.85) or poor physical fitness (OR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.27). – 0.72).
The researchers acknowledged study limitations, including a lack of granularity in terms of treatment modality or disease staging, inability to control for all comorbidities, and potential bias associated with retrospective analyses.
“However, we feel that our results are significant for [patients with kidney cancer]the doctors who treat and study those patients, and the health systems and insurers that provide care,” Roberson and colleagues wrote.
Kidney Cancer Symposium
