Being slightly overweight is associated with a better quality of life in breast cancer survivors

Abstract

To examine the association between BMI and QOL in breast cancer survivors in China, we conducted a cross-sectional survey and recruited 10708 breast cancer survivors. Survivors self-reported QOL was measured using the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the QLQ-BR23. The impact of BMI on QOL was examined through standard least squares regression. Normal weight and overweight survivors were more likely to have a better QOL than underweight and obese survivors and the results were similar to survivors diagnosed as having chronic diseases. After adjustment for clinical and sociodemographic factors, the QOL increased with increasing BMI in breast cancer survivors ranged from underweight to overweight with no chronic diseases, especially in the scales of emotional function and fatigue. Obese breast cancer survivors reported a significantly worse QOL compared to normal weight and overweight breast cancer survivors. Within breast cancer survivors with one or more chronic diseases, it was more obvious that overweight ones had a significantly better QOL with clear evidence of a dose relationship across underweight to overweight in almost all scales. Unlike obese breast cancer survivors without chronic diseases, the ones with chronic disease(s) had a similar QOL compared to normal weight breast cancer survivors in all scales except in the domain of fatigue.