ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer patients are recommended to engage in regular exercise. In developing countries, where there is a lack of facilities to offer specialized, supervised exercise for this population, regularly exercising might be a challenge. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based intervention in this population. METHODS: Breast cancer survivors were randomly assigned to either the home-based exercise program or the usual care group. Exercise intervention included walking, balance, and stretch exercises, along with weekly follow-up telephone calls. Quality of life (QOL) was evaluated using EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BR23 questionnaires and the predicted VO2 peak was measured using the Ebbeling submaximal treadmill test. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients were enrolled in the study. Reported minutes of exercise gradually increased from 40.7 min per week in week 1 to 116.9 min per week in week 12. This intervention improved global QOL (P = 0.001), social functioning (P = 0.04), and the predicted VO2 peak (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This home-based exercise regime effectively increased quality of life and physical activity levels. TRIAL REGISTRY: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials identifier: IRCT20140810018746N1, prospectively registered 08/01/2018, https://en.irct.ir/trial/27959 .
ABSTRACT
Background: This scoping review aimed to investigate the status of breast cancer (BC) preventive behaviors and screening indicators among Iranian women in the past 15 years. BC, as the most common cancer in women, represents nearly a quarter (23%) of all cancers. Presenting the comprehensive view of preventive modalities of BC in the past 15 years in Iran may provide a useful perspective for future research to establish efficient services for timely diagnosis and control of the disease. Materials and Methods: The English and Persian articles about BC screening modalities and their indicators in Iran were included from 2005 to 2020. English electronic databases of Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus, and Persian databases of Scientific Information Database (SID) and IranMedex were used. The critical information of articles was extracted and classified into different categories according to the studied outcomes. Results: A total of 246 articles were assessed which 136 of them were excluded, and 110 studies were processed for further evaluation. Performing breast self-examination, clinical breast examination, and mammography in Iranian women reported 0%-79.4%, 4.1%-41.1%, and 1.3%-45%, respectively. All of the educational interventions had increased participants' knowledge, attitude, and practice in performing the screening behaviors. The most essential screening indicators included participation rate (3.8% to 16.8%), detection rate (0.23-8.5/1000), abnormal call rate (28.77% to 33%), and recall rate (24.7%). Conclusion: This study demonstrated heterogeneity in population and design of research about BC early detection in Iran. The necessity of a cost-effective screening program, presenting a proper educational method for increasing women's awareness and estimating screening indices can be the priorities of future researches. Establishing extensive studies at the national level in a standard framework are advised.
ABSTRACT
Background: Several environmental and lifestyle factors have a significant role in the incidence of various types of cancer. Lifestyle factors are important elements in the development of cancer, and correction of them can lead to prevention. Given that the underlying cause of cancer is unclear, comparing the lifestyle of two groups of women can explain some of the breast cancer risk factors. Objective: The present study was conducted to compare the lifestyle dimensions in women with and without breast cancer. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out to compare two groups of 546 women (273 healthy individuals and 273 cancer patients). The lifestyle sub-scales were collected using a lifestyle questionnaire (LSQ). The differences between the scores of the eight sub-scales in the two groups were analyzed using independent ttest and Mann-Whitney test. Results: The mean age of the participants in both groups of this study was 44.51 ± 11.28. Although the lifestyle scores of the healthy individuals were higher than the patient group, in terms of all eight dimensions of lifestyle, a significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of four dimensions (P<0.05). Also, there was a positive and significant correlation between the socioeconomic status and the lifestyle of women with breast cancer (P=0.49). Conclusions: Regarding the difference between the lifestyle score of the two groups, it seems to be necessary for authorities and healthcare providers to plan for educational programs of lifestyle practices, and healthy behaviors. Besides, conducting longitudinal studies are recommended to find the causal relationship between the two variables
