Resumen de Self-Reported Physical Activity Levels of Older Cancer Survivors: Results from the 2014 National Health Interview Survey
Yelena Tarasenko, Chen Chen, Nancy Schoenberg
Objectives To examine adherence to the American College of Sports Medicine and American Cancer Society guidelines on leisure-time aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity (PA) of older cancer survivors.
Design Cross-sectional study based on the 2014 National Health Interview Survey.
Setting United States.
Participants Young-old (65–74) (n = 627), old-old (≥75) (n = 656), and middle-aged (45–64) (n = 786) cancer survivors and adults without cancer (n = 18,369), stratified according to the same age groups.
Measurements Weighted percentages were used to describe sociodemographic and health-related characteristics of the study population. Unadjusted and adjusted predicted probabilities from generalized ordered and multinomial logistic regressions were estimated to examine levels of aerobic and muscle-strengthening PA in the study population.
Results Cancer survivors and those without a cancer diagnosis had similarly low rates of adherence to PA guidelines according to age group. In unadjusted analyses, the age effect was statistically significant in long-term cancer survivors only. Adjusting for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, on average, 34.0% of young-old and 35.4% of old-old cancer survivors engaged in sufficient levels of aerobic PA, versus 44.3% of their middle-aged counterparts (P's <.05). Approximately 10% of older cancer survivors met aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines, compared with 19.1% of middle-aged cancer survivors (P = .001).
Conclusion Adherence to the recommended levels of leisure-time aerobic and muscle-strengthening PA is lower in older than middle-aged cancer survivors in the United States. Greater efforts must be made to encourage and support PA participation in this population.
