PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SEDENTARY BEHAVIORS: IMPACT ON SELF-RATED HEALTH AND PHYSICAL OUTCOMES IN CANCER SURVIVORS

Physical activity (PA) and avoidance of inactivity are recommended in cancer survivorship. But survivors are not meeting these recommendations. We used national data (NHANES) collected 2011-2014 (n=9620) to estimate associations of PA and TV viewing with 3 health outcomes: self-rated health, functional limitations and multimorbidity in older cancer survivors and adults without cancer. Greater PA was associated with reporting excellent health in survivors. Survivors that obtained 22.5+ MET-hours/week were 5.5 times more likely to report excellent health than those that did no exercise (OR=5.5, p<.001). We observed a decrease in likelihood of multimorbidity and functional limitations with increasing PA (both significant at p<.001). We noted survivors that abstained from watching TV were 3x more likely to report excellent health and between 60-80% less likely to report functional limitations and multimorbidity than TV watchers (p<001). Findings with non-cancer adults were similar. Survivors need PA and reduced TV to maximize health outcomes.