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A nationally representative study of aerobic activity and strength training in older cancer survivors and their psychological distress and sleep difficulties

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the prevalence of different levels of aerobic activity and strength training in older cancer survivors and their associations with psychological distress and sleep difficulties.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data from the 2016–2018 National Health Interview Survey on 3,425 survivors aged ≥ 65 years. Individuals were classified into active, insufficiently active, and inactive categories, and by whether they reported strength training at least twice per week. The outcome variables were self-reported psychological distress, trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, and trouble waking up feeling rested. Multivariate logistic models were used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

Only 35.2% of older survivors reached the recommended aerobic activity guidelines, and 12% had strength training at least twice per week. A total of 626 (18.3%) reported at least moderate psychological distress, and 1,137 (33.2%) had trouble staying asleep. For survivors who reported strength training less than two times per week, being insufficiently active or inactive was associated with worse psychological distress (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.17–1.97; OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02–1.64) and more sleep difficulties (OR ranging from 1.33 to 2.07). Among active survivors, strength training two or more times per week was associated with more trouble staying asleep (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.06–2.58).

Conclusions

Most older cancer survivors did not meet the recommended physical activity guidelines and suffered from psychological distress and sleep difficulties. Additional research may be needed to examine the effects of frequent muscle strength training on sleep quality.

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Abbreviations

SPD :

Serious psychological distress

ACS :

American Cancer Society

FPL :

Federal poverty level

BMI :

Body mass index

AOR :

Adjusted odds ratio

CI :

Confidence interval

K6 :

Kessler-6 scale

LPA :

Light intensity physical activity

MVPA :

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Xuesong Han from American Cancer Society for her kind help in writing—review and editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

JZ: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, software, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. MS: writing—review and editing. JC: writing—review and editing. SZ: methodology and data curation. LL: writing—review and editing. NAY: conceptualization, methodology, project administration, and writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nengliang (Aaron) Yao.

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The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is publicly available. The data we used were collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

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All survey participants provided informed consent to participate in NHIS.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Zhang, J., Su, M., Cheng, J. et al. A nationally representative study of aerobic activity and strength training in older cancer survivors and their psychological distress and sleep difficulties. Support Care Cancer 30, 9597–9605 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07370-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07370-2

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