Physical activity is beneficial before, during and after chemotherapy treatment. New doctoral research has taken a closer look at those who opt out. Those who cope best with cancer treatment are often those who had an active lifestyle before diagnosis.
It reduces the risk of delayed injury and complications." Benedikte Western In her doctoral work, she examined 34 different studies, all of which involved cancer patients partaking in exercise programmes. She noticed several common traits among those who started but dropped out of the studies.
One of them was that they did not have an active lifestyle before getting cancer. "Their dropping out midway compromises the research. It skews the results when those completing the programme already led active lives prior to their illness.
After all, they aren't the ones this research is aiming to help," says Western. Typically, those who did not complete an exercise programme following cancer treatment were overweight and had less formal education. However, some exercise programmes had more dropouts than others, and people quit at different times.
Some exercised regularly during treatment but quit afterwards. "Who quits isn't random" "We need to bear this in mind when we design these studies. Who quits isn't random, and for us to find effective solutions for everyone, we need to give extra attention to those who are more likely to quit," says Western.
It is naturally easier to stick with existing good habits than to form new ones. For m.