Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, with an increasing incidence in recent years. Patients experience a number of side effects during treatment, including a decrease in physical performance.
The purpose of the task is to analyse and evaluate the physical performance of breast cancer patients based on recommendations and results from the literature. We are interested in comparing physical performance based on the treatment method, as well as the relationship between the amount of physical activity and the 6MWT result and the occurrence of symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety.
The study included 76 patients with an average age of 54 ± 8 years and a disease duration of 7 ± 6 years at the time of measurement. We obtained information on the year of birth, the date of diagnosis, the method of treatment, the site affected, and the amount of physical activity performed weekly using a survey question. We used selected tests from the test battery to assess the physical fitness of the elderly - the Senior Fitness Test, which included the chair sit and reach test, the time-measured stand up and go test (2,4 m), the chair stand, elbow flexion, and a 6-minute walk test. We have included a grip performance test as one of the tests in the test battery designed to assess adult fitness. The DASS-21 Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale was used to collect data on the subjects' psychological condition. To compare the results of the measured tests with the results from the literature, we searched the data in the PubMed database in October 2020, using keywords that included breast cancer and the specific test that we performed ("6-minute walk test" OR "6MWT", "arm curl", "chair sit and reach", "chair stand", "time up and go", and "hand grip") AND ("breast cancer survivors").
We found that the survey results differ statistically (p < 0.01) from the results obtained from the literature. Except for the elbow flexion test, the subjects performed better in all tests. When compared to the recommendations for individual tests, the subjects achieved average to above-average results. A statistically significant negative relationship exists between physical activity and symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety (p < 0.05 for stress and anxiety, p < 0.051 for depression).
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