THE EFFECTS OF EXERCSE ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING IN PEOPLE DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION & AIMS The high psychological burden reported by adults diagnosed with cancer has a large impact on overall and cancer-specific health outcomes. Accumulating evidence indicates that psychological distress may accelerate tumour progression and increase risk of cancer mortality. Research has highlighted that exercise interventions are safe, feasible, and effective at improving both physical and psychological health for adults diagnosed with cancer. However, there are few systematic reviews that have evaluated psychological health as a primary outcome of interest or analysed the effects of different exercise prescriptions on specific psychological health outcomes. This systematic review aims to meta-analyse the available evidence and determine the effects of exercise on psychological health in individuals diagnosed with cancer. METHODS Systematic review with meta-analysis utilising a random effects model. Subgroups analysis was included, defined by psychological health outcomes and further stratified by the FITT principle: Frequency; Intensity; Time; and Type of exercise. RESULTS Seventy-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. One hundred and eighty-three individual effect sizes were obtained, which demonstrated small to moderate combined effects of exercise (d = 0.30, 95%CI 0.20; 0.40) across all psychological health outcome measures. CONCLUSION Exercise is an effective intervention to improve psychological health in adults diagnosed with cancer. The subgroup analysis revealed consistent effects across a range of specific psychological health outcomes, differences were observed between exercise prescriptions, thus highlighting a need for targeted exercise for each psychological health outcome.