Lifestyle Behaviour After Diagnosis of Cancer in Turkish Population

Abstract

Objectives: Healthy lifestyle factors have been reported to affect cancer survival.American Cancer Society(ACS) recom mended healthy diet, physical active life-style and healthy weight for cancer survivors. We provide an overview of thecancer survivors in respect to dietary pattern, body weight, physical activities of Turkish patients. Methods: Totally 107 patients, were treated for breast or colon cancer were included. The dietary patern of patientswere evaluated by self-reported food questionnaire. The relationship between diet pattern, BMI(body mass index),physical activities and sugar consumption and other socioeconomical characteristics were analyzed. Results: Half of our groups were physically active. Although the average BMI was 26.4kg/m2 . 16.8% of cancer survivorshad no risk factor like physical inactivity, consumption of sugar or overweight. BMI was related with physical activitiesand stage of disease. Overweight was linked to sedentary lifestyles and physical inactivities were also more associatedwith the chronic disease.The results further showed that female gender, non-smokers and survivors with high educa tion levels consumed more sugar in their diet. Conclusion: Our study indicate the dietary habit, weight and physical activities of our cancer survivors may reflect theTurkish population. Healthy policy can be improved and new strategises for follow-up or education for survivors inregarding healthy lifestyle can be developed.