Do Long Term Cancer Survivors Have Better Health-Promoting Behavior than Non-Cancer Populations?: Case-Control Study in Korea

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> We compared the health-promoting behavior of long-term cancer survivors with those ofthe general population to identify necessary behavioral interventions to reduce the health risk among cancerpatients. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: We used data from the 2007 and 2012 Korea National Health and NutritionExamination Surveys (KNHANES IV [2007~2009] and KNHANES V [2010~2012]) on smoking status, alcohol use,physical exercise, and disease screening. We compared long-term cancer survivors with members of the generalpopulation; the controls were matched by propensity score matching. A multiple logistic regression model wasused to investigate the association between cancer status and health-promoting behavior. <br/><b>Results</b>: Long-termcancer survivors had a lower risk of smoking than the general population controls (OR: 0.42, 95%CI: 0.25-0.71).In addition, the long-term cancer survivors had a lower risk of alcohol use than the general population controls(OR: 0.70, 95%CI: 0.50-0.98). However, in terms of physical exercise and disease screening, no statisticallysignificant differences were detected (physical exercise OR: 1.01, 95%CI: 0.75-1.35; disease screening OR: 1.27,95%CI: 0.93-1.74). All covariates were adjusted. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: The long-term cancer survivors had a much lowerrisk of smoking and alcohol use than the general population controls. However, almost no differences in physicalexercise and screening for cancer recurrence or secondary disease were detected between the long-term cancersurvivors and general population controls. To reduce the health risks and challenges facing long-term cancersurvivors, interventions to encourage physical exercise and screening for cancer recurrence and secondarydisease should be implemented.