Autonomy support in an exercise intervention with colorectal cancer patients during chemotherapy: a qualitative perspective

Abstract

Objective

Physical activity (PA) has emerged as an important element of supportive care for cancer patients, but few patients engage with exercise. Considering that autonomy support is associated with healthy lifestyles, it would be useful to know the specific autonomy-supportive techniques that can help to encourage PA in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. This study aims to qualitatively explore autonomy support perceptions through a self-determination-theory-based exercise program (FIT-CANCER) with CRC patients during chemotherapy treatment.

Methods and Measures

A total of 27 participants were included, 16 CRC patients, six relatives, and five healthcare professionals. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and observational field notes were analyzed with thematic analysis.

Results

Three main themes were identified: Healthcare professionals encouraging enrollment in the exercise program, Relatives supporting attendance to the exercise sessions, Exercise instructor favoring adherence to the exercise program. The different subthemes showed autonomy-supportive techniques from these social agents to promote CRC patients’ participation in the exercise program.

Conclusion

The present research showed the importance of autonomy support from healthcare professionals, relatives and the exercise instructor to promote the initiation and maintenance of CRC patients’ PA behavior and improve their quality of life, health and well-being.

Keywords:

• Chemotherapy
• social support
• relatives
• healthcare professionals
• physical activity

Ethical approval

This research was approved by the Ethical Research Boards of Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (Reference: PH-UMH-01) and Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Reference: DPS.DGC.01.19).

Clinical trial registration: The research project was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number NCT04506840).

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

The data files from the current study (raw transcripts, field notes and coding of extracted themes) are available in the OSF repository at https://osf.io/weur4/?view_only=c3cc3f36d5764bcda8981937499f0e20

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of the research project ‘Development of an educational and motivational program to promote adherence to physical activity and its positive effects in colorectal cancer patients (FIT-CANCER)’ PID2019-107287RA-I00, funded by the State Research Agency-Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).