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Posted on Apr 29, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Cancer survivors are achieving much higher health-related quality of life levels when they follow lifestyle advice, but many are still failing to take all recommendations on board, according to the American Cancer Society.
Cancer survivors are achieving much higher health-related quality of life levels when they follow lifestyle advice, but many are still failing to take all recommendations on board, according to the American Cancer Society.
Preparing its report for the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the group's research team found that cancer survivors had woken up to the risks of smoking, posting lower smoking rates than people with no history of cancer.
However, the study revealed that only one in 20 survivors was obeying all of their lifestyle behaviour recommendations, with eight out of ten failing to meet their five-a-day advice and seven out of ten also falling short on physical activity recommendations.
Lead researcher Dr Kevin Stein said: "It is concerning that up to 12.5 percent of cancer survivors are not meeting any lifestyle behaviour recommendation and less than ten per cent on average across the cancer groups are meeting two or more recommendations."
"What is particularly noteworthy is that following lifestyle behaviour recommendations not only can have a positive impact on physical health outcomes, but also have the added benefit of having a positive impact on quality of life."
He added that following multiple health recommendations would have a powerful cumulative effect, avoid the effects of eating better being cancelled out by continued smoking or another unhealthy practice.
