Facilitators and barriers to centre- and home-based exercise training in breast cancer patients - A Swiss tertiary centre experience

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Swiss Cancer Research Background Exercise is an effective therapy for cancer patients to reduce fatigue and to improve health-related quality of life and physical function. Yet, cancer patients often do not meet physical activity guidelines. Purpose To understand why recommendations are not met, we aimed at identifying facilitators and barriers to supervised, centre-based exercise within a cardio-oncologic rehabilitation (CORE) programme and to unsupervised, home-based exercise as well as strategies used to manage these barriers. Methods Breast cancer patients who had completed a CORE programme at a Swiss tertiary centre were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with subsequent thematic analysis. Results Of 37 eligible breast cancer patients, 19 patients (mean age 48.9±9.7 years) participated to our invitation. Facilitators for centre-based exercise were social support, committedness and provision of structured exercise. Barriers towards centre-based exercise included physical and environmental barriers, while psychological barriers were reported predominantly for home-based exercise. Strategies to manage barriers included the adaptation of training circumstances, behaviour change strategies and strategies to deal with side effects. Conclusions Our results support the importance of providing CORE programmes and suggest that a special focus should be directed at the transition from supervised to self-organized exercise in order to enhance long-term exercise participation.