Association between current lifestyle behaviors and health-related quality of life in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer survivors

The purpose of the present study was to compare cancer survivors on three different lifestyle behaviors (i.e., physical activity, fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, and smoking) and examine the association between these lifestyle behaviors and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Breast ( n = 123), colorectal ( n = 86), and prostate ( n = 107) cancer survivors completed a survey that included lifestyle behavior questions and the RAND-36 Health Status Inventory (HSI). Results showed that similar percentages of breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer survivors met the lifestyle behavior recommendations. Overall, 69.9 and 26.3% reported meeting the recommendations for physical activity and F&V consumption while 94.3% did not smoke. In addition, survivors who met the physical activity recommendation had significantly higher HRQOL than those who did not, however, meeting the F&V recommendation was not related to HRQOL. Nonetheless, survivors who met more than one lifestyle behavior recommendation had significantly higher HRQOL than those who only met one recommendation. Therefore, although it appears that F&V interventions are needed, it may be important to target more than one lifestyle behavior to obtain optimal HRQOL benefits. Importantly, results suggest that physical activity may be the key lifestyle behavior to include in multibehavioral interventions aimed at improving HRQOL.