Cancer, Physical Activity and Quality of Life- a Longterm Follow up

Major improvements in cancer detection and treatment lead to longer life expectancy among cancer survivors. This may in turn lead to more late effects and many have to deal with long-term consequences of the disease and its' treatment. Returning to everyday life and to work is often an important part of returning to normal life for cancer survivors. There is increasing knowledge concerning late effects, but there is still lack of knowledge concerning the life of those experiencing late effects. There is a need for more knowledge about late effects' impact on the return to work prosess, physical activity and quality of life over time. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be utilized. Standardized questionnaires will provide information on the effect of the intervention over time, in addition to quality of life over time. Sensewear armband will provide information about their physical activity over time. Official register data from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (the NAV administration) will provide us information about the work- and benefit situation through the whole follow-up period of 6-8 years. The register data include information about type of social benefits (sick-leave benefit, work assessment allowance (WAA), disability pension, unemployment benefit and retirement pension), as well as information about occupation, income and sick leave diagnosis. Focus group interviews will give us insight in the cancer survivors own experiences with quality of life over time, the transition from the specialist health services to the primary health care and the follow-up in the municipalities.

Inclusion criteria

• Stage I-III disease
• Scheduled for neo/adjuvant or curative treatment (i.e. chemotherapy, radiation therapy or hormonal therapy or any combination of these therapies)

Exclusion criteria

• On-going psychiatric condition
• Lack of fluency in Norwegian
• A previous diagnosis of cancer