Evaluation of quality of life of women breast cancer survivors who received resistance training for 12 months

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to assess the impact of a 12-month resistance training (RT) protocol on the quality of life
(QoL) of woman breast cancer (BC) survivors. Methodology: This is an experimental study, lasting 12 months and involving 10 women (58.80±6.94 years) BC survivors. QoL was evaluated using the FACT B+4 (Functional Assessment of Cancer
Therapy – BC + Arm Subscale) composed of the domains: physical well-being (PWB), social/family well-being (SWB), well-
-being emotional (EWB), functional well-being (FWB), BC specific aspects (BCS), Trial Outcomes Index (TOI), FACT-B, and
FACT-G. To analyze the two dependent measurements (pre- and post-intervention), we used the paired student t-test (parametric data) described as mean and standard error (SE) and the Wilcoxon test (non-parametric) described as median and
SE. Results: For QoL, there was a significant difference for SWB with an improvement of 6.10 (SE 2.11) points (t(9)=2.883,
p=0.018; d=1.14 “large”) and FWB improvement of 7.60 (SE 2.77) points (t(9)=2.736, p=0.023; d=0.86 “large”). As for TOI,
FACT-G, and FACT-B, there was a significant increase post-training, with gains of 13.60 (SE 4.02), 17.10 (SE 5.07), and 21.90
(SE 6.31) points, respectively, with significant differences for TOI (t(9)=3.376, p=0.008; d=1.06 “large”), FACT-G (t(9)=3.372,
p=0.009; d=1.06 “large”), and FACT-B (t(9)=3.468, p=0.007; d=1.09 “large”). The Wilcoxon test indicated an improvement
in BCS after the intervention, with a median of 4.00 (SE 2.14) points (W=3.500, p=0.027, rB=0.84 “large”). Conclusion: RT
after 12 months of intervention is significantly beneficial in improving the QoL of women BC survivors.