BACKGROUND: An estimated 15 million cancer survivors currently live in the United States. This number is expected to jump to 20.3 million by 2026. Improving our understanding of the factors that are associated with general health is important for developing public health interventions that impact quality of life for this population. We assessed the association between any exercise (AE), mental health burden (MHB), and self-reported good or better general health among Michigan’s cancer survivors using publically available surveillance data.
METHODS: Data from the 2013 and 2015 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were analyzed. Participants reported if they performed AE in the last 30 days and the number of days in the previous 30 they experienced poor mental health. This number was dichotomized into 0-13 days (low burden) and 14-30 days (high burden). General health was dichotomized as good or better and poor or fair. Logistic regression was used to model odds of reporting good or better general health with an interaction term for AE and MHB. The interaction term was used to estimate the effect of AE by different levels of MHB, the referent group was no exercise and low MHB. Backwards selection was used to eliminate variables that were not significant (alpha = 0.05) and did not modify odds ratio estimates by 10% or more.
RESULTS: In the adjusted model, cancer survivors who reported doing AE in the last 30 days and low MHB were 2.2 times as likely to report good or better general health (95% CI: 1.7, 3.0) than cancer survivors who did not report doing AE in the last 30 days and had low MHB. Survivors who reported doing no exercise and high MHB were 50% less likely to report good or better general health (OR: 0.5. 95% CI: 0.3, 0.9). Cancer survivors who reported doing AE and had high MHB had lower odds of reporting good or better general health than those who did not exercise and had low MHB, but the estimate was not statistically significant (OR: 0.5. 95% CI: 0.2, 1.0).
CONCLUSIONS: Cancer survivors who participated in AE and reported low MHB had the highest odds of also experiencing good or better general health, while survivors who reported doing no exercise and had high MHB had the lowest odds. Public health interventions for cancer survivors need to include both physical activity and support for mental health.