Effect of Physical Activity on Health-Related Quality of Life among Cancer Patients and Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

To manage chronic illnesses and enhance health-related quality of life (HRQOL), exercise is essential. This research attempts to determine how different forms of exercise affect cancer patients' and survivors' HRQOL and its physical, mental, emotional and social components separately.

This study was prepared following PRISMA guidelines for systematic review and meta-analysis. Databases like PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar were searched. Only randomized control trials in the English language were included in the review. The authors obtained the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the aggregated intervention effect estimate by pooling every study for a random-effects meta-analysis. Risk of Bias was assessed using Cochrane's Risk of Bias tool 2.0 for randomized control trials. Publication bias was expressed using funnel plots.

The pooled standardized mean difference of physical, mental, emotional and social components of the health-related quality of life index, as determined by the meta-analysis, was 0.61 [0.13;1.09] (p<0.01), 0.27 [-0.17; 0.7] (p<0.01), 0.54 [-0.30;1.38] (p<0.01) and, 0.38 [-0.27; 1.02] (p<0.01) respectively. There was an overall low risk of bias in the included RCTs. The publication bias showed overall symmetry in funnel plots. The review's conclusions show that exercise therapies improve HRQOL significantly overall as well as a few specific HRQOL dimensions, such as social, mental, emotional, and physical functioning. However, not all types of cancers have been included in the study therefore more research can be done for all other cancer types separately.