The same motivation appears to hold in close
relatives of cancer survivors, Drs. Carolyn
Rabin and Bernadine Pinto of Miriam Hospital
and Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode
Island report in the medical journal Psycho-Oncology.
"Survivors take an active problem-solving
approach to preventing a future incidence
of cancer; they develop their own understanding
or representation of the cancer and implement
preventive behavioral strategies accordingly,"
they write.
Many cancer survivors don't choose to adopt
healthier habits after their diagnosis, Rabin
and Pinto note. Previous research shows that
50 percent of breast cancer survivors don't
get the recommended five servings of fruit
and vegetables daily, for example, while 23
percent eat diets high in fat, and 28 to 43
percent don't exercise.
The researchers hypothesized that survivors
and their relatives who believed certain habits
may have contributed to their disease, and
who thought that changing these habits would
prevent the disease from recurring, would
be more likely to change those habits. To
investigate, they surveyed 65 breast cancer
survivors and 33 of their first-degree relatives
three months after the patients had completed
their cancer treatment, and again three months
later.
Patients who thought that sedentary habits,
alcohol consumption or bad diet had helped
cause their disease and that changing these
habits would prevent disease recurrence were
more likely to change those behaviors.
The researchers found a particularly strong
association with diet, with cancer survivors
who thought eating too much fat and not enough
fruit and vegetables contributed to their
illness more likely to cut their fat consumption
and boost their plant food intake.
"Understanding the factors that prompt the
initiation of healthy lifestyle changes among
cancer survivors and first-degree relatives
is a necessary first step toward developing
interventions for those unlikely to initiate
such behavior changes on their own," Rabin
and Pinto conclude.
SOURCE: Psycho-Oncology, August 2006.
