Nutrition advice boosts cancer survivors
than just impact their diet and eating patterns: it may also give
them a psychological boost at a time when they are particularly
prone to anxiety and depression, say researchers.
For a new study funded by the US National Cancer Institute and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Emory University followed the progress of 252 women as they emerged from breast cancer treatment.
The women, all of whom were under 50, were divided into three groups. One group received no intervention following the completion of treatment; the second group attended four seminars covering life aspects such as the genetics of cancer, reproductive health, relationships and the genetics of cancer; the third received information on nutrition and maintaining healthy diet.
Such intervention programs are normally judged according to the effects they have on a person's eating habits. But in this case, the researchers did not even look at how their diets may have changed. Rather, they looked at their mental health functioning, physical functioning and depressive symptoms.
"This is the first time that nutritional intervention has been explicitly used to enhance the patients' quality of life," said lead author Michael Scheier, head of Carnegie Mellon's department of psychology.
Nine months after the end of the interventions, the women in the active intervention arms displayed better physical functioning and were less likely to show signs of depression than those who received no intervention. The results were better for the nutritional advice group, but not significantly so.
"These effects were primarily accounted for by changes in intrusive thoughts, concerns regarding cancer recurrence and mortality, self-perceptions, and self-efficacy expectations," wrote Scheier and his team.
