Risky Lifestyle Behaviors among Gastric Cancer Survivors Compared with Matched Non-cancer Controls: Results from Baseline Result of Community Based Cohort Study

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigated the prevalence of smoking, drinking, and physical inactivity and the associated factors of these behaviors in gastric cancer survivors.Materials and MethodsThe baseline data from the nationwide cohort study was used. Four hundred thirty-seven gastric cancer survivors who survived ≥ 2 years from diagnosis and reported completion of treatment were matched with 4,370 controls according to age, sex, education, and household income.ResultsThe prevalence rates of current smoking and drinking among gastric cancer survivors were 8.7% and 38.3%, which were significantly lower than those among matched controls (p ≤ 0.001), but the prevalence rates of physical inactivity were not significantly different (55.8% vs. 59.9%, p=0.248). In gastric cancer survivors, ≥ 5 years since cancer diagnosis and current drinking contributed to more current smoking; otherwise, age increment and femalewere associatedwith lower current smoking. Thosewith household income ≥ $2,000 and current smokers were more likely to drink and female showed less drinking. Female, currently employed state, and self-rated health status were associated with more physical inactivity.ConclusionAlthough gastric cancer survivors showed better health behaviors than controls, suggesting that the diagnosis of cancer may motivate individuals towards healthy behaviors, their current prevalence rates of smoking and drinking were still high, and more than 50% of them were physically inactive. Tailored interventions to improve their health behaviors considering associated factors for the gastric cancer survivors are necessary.

Factors Associated with Health Behaviors in Thyroid Cancer Survivors

“…The result of the association between increments in age and the lower likelihood of current drinking in this study was also observed in other study [16]. The associations between employment, self-rated health status, and higher physical inactivity as well as the correlation between comorbidities and lower physical inactivity were comparable with a previous study on gastric cancer survivors [27]. Long working hours could be a reason for the increased physical inactivity in employees.…”

“…While it is known that females have better health-related lifestyles than males in the general population and cancer survivors [26,27], interestingly, studies show that the prevalence of smoking is higher in female cancer survivors than non-cancer subjects with significant sex-drinking/smoking interaction [17]. However, in this study, female thyroid cancer survivors showed healthier behaviors than male thyroid cancer survivors in terms of both smoking and drinking but did not show differences in physical activity.…”

Assessment of Diet Quality and Adherence to Dietary Guidelines in Gastrointestinal Cancer Survivors: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In addition, the studies published thus far scarcely give a clear overview of the food components of the evaluated diets. For that reason, there is a need to further characterize the diet quality among GI cancer survivors [9][10][11][12].…”

Compliance with Multiple Health Behaviour Recommendations: A Cross-Sectional Comparison between Female Cancer Survivors and Those with no Cancer History

“…Whilst evidence is limited and inconsistent, there are a number of studies suggesting that cancer survivors make positive changes to health behaviours after a cancer diagnosis [9,10,11,12], and cancer survivors have healthier lifestyle behaviours than those who are cancer-free [13,14,15]. These findings emanate the notion that the period after a cancer diagnosis be considered as a “teachable moment”, whereby cancer survivors may be receptive to lifestyle change messages and may be more motivated to make healthy behaviour changes [16,17].…”