Relationship of Exercise to Fatigue and Quality of Life in Women With Breast Cancer

摘要

Seventy-eight women with breast cancer have been entered in the study. All subjects received instruction to follow an eight-week, home-based exercise program. Two preliminary analyses have been conducted. The first examined the relationship of exercise to fatigue and quality of life in 31 subjects. This analysis demonstrated that the effect of exercise was strongly mediated by fatigue and that fatigue accounted for 71% of the variance in quality of life. The second analysis examined the pattern of fatigue over the first three cycles of chemotherapy in 68 subjects. Results indicated a curvilinear relationship between fatigue and duration of exercise; as the number of minutes of exercise increased fatigue declined. Findings from both analyses support exercise as an intervention for fatigue in women with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. The results indicate that while there appears to be a dose response relationship of exercise to fatigue, fatigue appears to be the mechanism through which exercise affects quality of life. This research indicates that exercise is important to help maintain functional ability, reduce fatigue and improve quality of life during breast cancer treatment.