Introduction: This paper reports racial/ethnic differences in mean dietary and alcohol intake, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) among cancer survivors and examines adherence to the American Cancer Society and the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Methods: Data are from the cross-sectional 2005 and 2010 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). The total sample of cancer survivors (N = 3367) included non-Hispanic Whites (NHW; N = 2698), non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs; N = 379), and Hispanics (N = 290). We compared mean reported dietary intake, moderate/vigorous physical activity, and BMI among racial/ethnic groups. Predicted marginals and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to compare prevalence of non-adherence with recommendations among groups.
Results: Among the three racial/ethnic groups, Hispanics had the highest mean intake of vegetables, fiber, and calcium (p = 0.0003; p < 0.0001; p = 0.001). In the logistic regression model adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, smoking and BMI, Hispanics had lower non-adherence to fiber guidelines (OR = 0.38; CI = 0.24-0.58) than NHWs. NHBs had significantly higher non-adherence to vegetable guidelines (OR = 1.63; CI = 1.07-2.47). NHBs and Hispanics had lower non-adherence with alcohol guidelines than NHWs (OR = 0.35 and 0.38; CI = 0.18-0.69 and 0.19-0.76, respectively). NHBs and Hispanics were more likely to be overweight/obese (OR = 1.66 and 1.57; CI = 1.24-2.23 and CI = 1.11-2.21, respectively).
Conclusions: There are racial/ethnic differences in certain health behaviors of cancer survivors. However, non-adherence to guidelines is high in all three racial/ethnic groups. Achieving the recommended guidelines for diet, physical activity, and a healthy BMI is a concern for all cancer survivors, indicating the need for intervention among this growing group of at-risk individuals.
Keywords: Cancer survivors; Dietary intake; Overweight/obesity; Physical activity; Race/ethnicity.