A pilot study of pre-diagnosis dietary patterns and lifestyle factors in physically active and inactive women with breast cancer

The purpose of the study was to assess the nutritional status, health behaviors, and dietary habits of women with varying levels of physical activity who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The study included 108 female patients aged 49 to 63 years (mean age 54.0 ± 9.15 years) diagnosed with cancer. For comparative analysis, the respondents were divided into two groups: the first group included women whose physical activity level (PAL) was consistent with WHO recommendations before the onset of the disease (hPAL; n = 64), and the second group (lPAL) included women who reported that PAL did not meet WHO recommendations (n = 44). The health behaviors were collected using two research tools: Juczyński's Health Behavior Inventory (HBI) and the KomPAN questionnaire. The results obtained in our study showed that nutritional status and health behaviors depend on physical activity levels (PAL). The average pHDI-10 index of the hPAL group was statistically significantly higher than that of the lPAL group (26.2 vs. 22.8). Our findings suggest that women who were physically active before diagnosis demonstrated more favorable dietary and health behavior patterns, which may contribute to better overall health and disease management.