Cancer patients can improve their quality of life with just 30 minutes of walking, suggests a study.
The study appeared in the BMJ Open journal. The findings indicated that walking provided an improved positive attitude towards their illness and spoke of the social benefits of participating in group walks.
Researchers from the University of Surrey and King’s College London explored the impact of walking on the quality of life and symptom severity in patients with advanced cancer. Despite growing evidence of significant health benefits of exercise to cancer patients, physical activity commonly declines considerably during treatment and remains low afterwards.
Initiatives in place to promote physical activity for those suffering with cancer are normally supervised and require travel to specialist facilities, placing an additional burden on patients. The study was conducted on 42 cancer patients and was split into two groups.