Pre-Diagnosis Diet and Physical Activity and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality among Female Cancer Survivors

Sub-optimal diet and physical activity (PA) levels have been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. The relationship between pre-cancer diagnosis diet quality and PA level on CVD mortality risk in cancer survivors is unclear. We examined the association between pre-cancer diagnosis diet quality and leisure-time PA and their interaction on CVD mortality in cancer survivors. Diet quality was characterized by the Alternative Mediterranean Diet Index (aMED). Leisure-time PA was converted to a metabolic equivalent of task hours per week (MET-h/wk). During a median of 6.3 years of follow-up of 18,533 female cancer survivors, we identified 915 CVD deaths. aMED score was not associated with CVD mortality. PA level was inversely associated with CVD mortality (HRQ1-Q4 = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.61–0.88; Ptrend = 0.0014). Compared to cancer survivors with the lowest pre-diagnosis aMED score and PA level, cancer survivors with higher aMED scores and higher MET-hrs/wk were at a 33% lower risk of CVD mortality (HR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.52–0.87). Overall, this study shows PA to be a strong predictor of CVD mortality in female cancer survivors. Our observations support the importance of PA throughout the lifecycle in lowering CVD mortality risk.