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Health Behaviors of Minority Childhood Cancer Survivors
Cancer treatments can have unfavorable consequences for cancer survivors but healthy behaviors can reduce the severity or the risk of these consequences. While there are studies that investigate lifestyle behaviors of childhood cancer survivors in the general population, there is not much information about minority childhood cancer survivors (CCS). Diseases such as diabetes occur prematurely among minority populations. This risk in combination with the risk of cancer treatments make minority CCSs more vulnerable compared to white survivors. The Childhood Cancer Survivors Study is the only study that considers minority survivors’ health behaviors such as the frequency of drinking and smoking. But it fails to analyze the body mass index (BMI) or dietary practices of minority survivors and how their behaviors compare to peers without cancer. Thus the Chicago Healthy Living Study compares the BMI and health behaviors of 452 African American, Hispanic, and White adult CCS and 375 ethically matched non-cancer control individuals. This is to provide an underst...