Search

PurposeSeveral studies have reported sleep disturbances during the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Little data exist about the impact of the pandemic on sleep and mental health among older women with breast cancer. We sought to examine whether women with and without breast cancer who experienced new sleep problems during the pandemic had worsening depression and anxiety.MethodsBreast cancer survivors aged ≥60years with a history of nonmetastatic breast cancer (n=242) and frequency-matched noncancer controls (n=158) active in a longitudinal cohort study completed a COVID-19 virus pandemic survey from May to September 2020 (response rate 83%). Incident sleep disturbance was measured using the restless sleep item from the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). CES-D score (minus the sleep item) captured depressive symptoms; the State-Anxiety subscale of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory measured anxiety symptoms. Multivariable linear regression models examined how the development of sleep disturbance affected changes in depressive or anxiety symptoms from the most recent prepandemic survey to the pandemic survey, controlling for covariates.ResultsThe prevalence of sleep disturbance during the pandemic was 22.3%, with incident sleep disturbance in 10% and 13.5% of survivors and controls, respectively. Depressive and anxiety symptoms significantly increased during the pandemic among women with incident sleep disturbance (vs. no disturbance) (β=8.16, p&nbsp

BACKGROUND: Black women have higher lung cancer incidence and mortality rates despite a lower smoking prevalence than White women. Physical activity may reduce lung cancer risk through several pathways, including the immune and inflammatory systems, as well as those with effects on sex hormones and metabolism. METHODS: We examined vigorous physical activity, walking for exercise, sitting watching television, and metabolic equivalents (METs) in relation to lung cancer risk among 38,432 participants in a prospective cohort of Black women. We used Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for covariates to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: From 1995 to 2017, 475 incident lung cancer cases accrued. Participants who engaged in ≥1 hour/week of vigorous physical activity or expended the highest tertile of METs experienced a decreased risk of lung cancer (HR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.65–1.10; 0.89, 0.68–1.18; respectively). An increased risk was observed for sitting watching television (≥1 hour/week: 1.27, 0.72–2.21). In stratified models, an inverse association between walking for exercise and lung cancer risk was only present among former smokers (≥1 hour/week: 0.71, 0.52–0.98), while inverse associations between vigorous physical activity (≥1 hour/week: 0.45, 0.28–0.73) and METs (tertile 3: 0.54, 0.34–0.85) and lung cancer risk were present among smokers with ≥20 pack-years. CONCLUSION: Physical activity may play a role in reducing lung cancer risk among Black women, particularly among smokers. Future studies should explore biologic mechanisms whereby physical activity may influence carcinogenesis and investigate the role of exercise interventions in reducing lung cancer risk among smokers.