MA17.01 A Sense of Understanding and Belonging When Life Is at Stake – Operable Lung Cancer Patients’ Lived Experiences of Participation in Exercise

Exercise has been introduced to improve physical capacity and quality of life and to reduce symptoms and side effects of treatment in surgically treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The effects of an exercise programme for this patient group has been tested in a randomized controlled trial – the PROLUCA study. The questions though, of how patients experience participation in group-based exercise studies and the impact of the shared community with fellow patients has not been previously examined. The objective was to explore lived experiences and social benefits among patients with operable NSCLC who participated in an exercise programme (the PROLUCA study) post-surgery. Nineteen patients enrolled in an exercise intervention two weeks post-surgery participated in qualitative interviews at three time points. A phenomenological hermeneutical approach comprised the epistemological stance and the methodological basis was Ricoeur’s narrative philosophy. The goal of the analysis and interpretation was to provide descriptions that captured the meaning of the lived experiences of the patients. Patients included in this qualitative study had a mean age of 63 years (range 48-75), 58% were female, and 68% was retired. Eighty-four percent had performance status 0 (WHO) and almost all patients were used to some kind of physical activity. The analysis revealed social benefits of taking part in the group-based exercise intervention. The patients experienced themselves as part of a community, and the physical exercise intervention was significant in terms of the patients’ social capital. In this sense, patients gained access to resources that derived from human interaction in the exercise group, and their illness and treatment became easier to manage when shared with others in the same situation. The exercise intervention helped to create a community for patients after lung cancer surgery, and the patients experienced a feeling of belonging and equality with the other participants. The group based exercise intervention created opportunities for mutual understanding between patients, making illness and treatment easier to manage. The patients experienced support to gain renewed balance in life during the exercise intervention in the interaction with peers in the group. It is relevant to inform operable NSCLC patients about the potential community of understanding and belonging in group-based exercise interventions.