Health status, lifestyle habits, and perceived social support in long-term cancer survivors: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: To compare the presence of comorbidities and self-perceived health and social support between long-term cancer survivors and people without a history of cancer from a clinical trial examining the effects of a multiple risk behavior intervention. RESULTS: Of the 4259 people studied, 190 (4.46%) were cancer survivors. They had a mean ± SD age of 62.8 ± 7 years vs. 58.7 ± 8 years (P < 0.01) for non-cancer people and were more likely to be on long-term sick leave (11.9 vs. 3.5%, P < 0.001). No differences were observed for smoking, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, physical activity, obesity, or social support. Cancer survivors were more likely to have worse self-perceived health (OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.02–2.75), more comorbidities (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.18–2.39), COPD (OR 2.17; 95% CI 1.25–3.78), and depression (OR 1.65; 95% CI 1.06–2.57). Older age and worse self-perceived health were independent predictors of survivorship in the adjusted analysis.