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The experiences and perceptions of female breast cancer patients regarding weight management during and after treatment for oestrogen-receptor positive disease: a qualitative study

Saxton, JM; Pickering, K; Wane, S; Crank, H; Anderson, AS; Cain, H; Cohen, J; Copeland, RJ; Gray, J; Hargreaves, J; McNally, RJQ; Wilson, C

Authors

Profile image of John Saxton

Professor John Saxton John.Saxton@hull.ac.uk
Professor in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Head of the School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences

K Pickering

S Wane

H Crank

AS Anderson

H Cain

RJ Copeland

J Gray

J Hargreaves

RJQ McNally

C Wilson



Abstract

Background: Weight gain is commonly observed during and after breast cancer treatment and is associated with poorer survival outcomes, notably in women with oestrogen-receptor positive disease. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of oestrogen-receptor positive (ER +) female breast cancer patients (BCPs) regarding weight management behaviours during and after treatment. Secondly, to gain insight into the experiences of healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding the provision of weight management advice to patients undergoing treatment. Methods: Four focus groups involving 16 BCPs having a median (range) age of 51 (35–70 y) and three focus groups involving 21 HCPs aged 46 (29–62) were held at a university campus, local cancer support centre or clinical site. Data were analysed using Framework analysis. Results: Four overarching themes (and 10 subthemes) were identified: (1) Treatment; (2) Support for lifestyle behaviour change; (3) Information availability for BCPs; (4) Knowledge of current evidence amongst HCPs. The physical and psychological consequences of treatment influenced motivation for weight management amongst BCPs. Social support for health promoting behaviours was viewed as important but was conflicting, requiring context-specific considerations. BCPs said they would have welcomed access to credible information (guided by HCPs) about the potential detrimental health effects of excess body weight and weight gain, together with advice on weight management via healthy eating and physical activity. HCPs felt that they had insufficient knowledge of public health dietary and physical activity recommendations or evidence-based interventions to confidently offer such advice. HCPs expressed concern that raising weight management issues would exacerbate distress or invoke feelings of guilt amongst BCPs, and cited time pressures on patient consultations as additional barriers to providing weight management support. Conclusion: The study yielded novel insights into factors influencing weight management behaviours amongst overweight ER + BCPs. The results suggest that evidence-based information and support, which addresses key physical and psychological challenges to physical activity and dietary behaviours, offers the best route to sustainable weight management in this population.

Citation

Saxton, J., Pickering, K., Wane, S., Crank, H., Anderson, A., Cain, H., Cohen, J., Copeland, R., Gray, J., Hargreaves, J., McNally, R., & Wilson, C. (2022). The experiences and perceptions of female breast cancer patients regarding weight management during and after treatment for oestrogen-receptor positive disease: a qualitative study. BMC Cancer, 22(1), Article 1189. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-10238-7

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 26, 2022
Online Publication Date Nov 18, 2022
Publication Date Dec 1, 2022
Deposit Date Jan 12, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jan 13, 2023
Journal BMC Cancer
Print ISSN 1471-2407
Electronic ISSN 1471-2407
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 22
Issue 1
Article Number 1189
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-10238-7
Keywords Breast cancer; Hormone-positive; Weight management; Barriers and facilitators
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4175195

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Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which
permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the
original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or
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to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.





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