Patient and health care professional co-development of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to support hormone therapy decision-making and well-being in women with breast cancer

Abstract

Objectives

The aim of this work was to co-develop an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention to support medication adherence and quality of life in breast cancer survivors (BCSs). The research approach was intervention co-development.

Methods

The sample consisted of BCS focus groups (n = 24), health care provider (HCP) interviews (n = 10), and a co-development workshop (BCSs, n = 12; HCPs, n = 9).We conducted 6 BCS focus groups and 10 HCP interviews to understand the acceptability of ACT. We co-designed the intervention in a workshop.

Results

Participants reported high acceptability of an ACT intervention. BCSs preferred ACT exercises focused on values and self-compassion. Both groups recommended face-to-face intervention delivery, by a clinical psychologist, with a mixture of individual and group sessions. BCSs requested advice on side-effect management.

Conclusions

We effectively used patient and HCP co-design to configure an ACT intervention to support medication adherence and quality of life for BCSs. If feasible and efficacious, this ACT-based intervention could support breast cancer survivorship.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contribution of the ACTION investigators (in alphabetical order): Rachael Ellison¹, Michelle Collinson¹, Amanda Farrin¹, Robbie Foy², Suzanne Hartley¹, Ellen Mason¹, Jamie Metherell¹, Rebecca Mottram¹, Richard Neal², Duncan Petty³, Julie Saritag⁴, Galina Velikova^1,5, and Michael Wolf⁶.

¹Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Leeds, UK.

²Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, UK.

³School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of Bradford, UK.

⁴Patient representative.

⁵St James’s University Hospital, Leeds & Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, UK.

⁶Department of Medicine, Northwestern University, USA.

The authors would like to thank Jill Long at Yorkshire Cancer Community for her support with recruitment for both studies and all the people who participated in this project.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Data sharing

Raw data, beyond those displayed in this article, are not shared.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a grant from Yorkshire Cancer Research (grant number L417). Dr Smith is funded by a Yorkshire Cancer Research Fellowship. The funder had no input on the methods, analysis, or writing of the manuscript.