Working out can protect cancer survivors against COVID-19

For patients with a history of cancer, exercising appears to lower the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection, according to a study.

The analysis included 944 cancer patients from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (mean age 64 years, 85 percent female, 78 percent White). All of them completed an exercise survey before receiving a confirmed positive or negative SARS-CoV-2 test.

Researchers defined exercise as moderate-intensity (≥5 days per week, ≥30 minutes/session) or strenuous-intensity (≥3 days per week, ≥20 minutes/session). They utilized multivariable logistic regression to assess the relationship between exercise and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity (ie, composite of hospital admission or death events) with adjustment for clinical–epidemiologic covariates.

A total of 230 patients (24 percent) in the overall cohort contracted COVID-19, while 333 (35 percent) engaged in exercise.

During a median follow-up of 10 months, COVID-19 infection occurred more frequently in the nonexercising group (156 out of 611 patients, 26 percent) than in the exercising group (74 out of 333 patients, 22 percent). Patients who exercised had 35-percent lower odds of contracting COVID-19 (odds ratio, 0.65, 95 percent confidence interval, 0.44–0.96; p=0.03).

A total of 47 out of 230 (20 percent) COVID-19-positive patients were hospitalized or died. There was no difference in the risk of severe COVID-19 between the exercising and nonexercising groups (p>0.9).