PA has shown beneficial effects in the treatment of BC fatigue, nevertheless a significant portion of patients (pts) remain insufficiently physically active after BC. Currently most of BC pts has a smartphone and therefore mobile health (mHealth) holds the promise of promoting health behaviors uptake for many of them. Kiplin® developed an app-based mHealth group intervention aiming at engaging pts in group PA challenges while monitoring daily steps. The aim of this study was, through qualitative exploration, to 1) understand the feasibility of this challenge and 2) inform its development in pts with BC.
BC pts with fatigue (≥4/10 using a visual analog scale) and physically inactive (per WHO recommendations) were included. 2 independent pts groups (n1=5, n2=4; overall median age=47, range: 29-60) performed an initial focus group (FG) to understand barriers to PA and mHealth, followed by a 2 week Kiplin® challenge and a closing FG to obtain feedback on the mHealth experience. FGs lasted ≈60 minutes, were recorded, transcribed and anonymized. Emergent themes were identified by thematic content analysis using NVivo 12.
Three main themes regarding barriers to PA emerged: 1) physical barriers (e.g. late effects of treatment) (100%); 2) time barriers (e.g. work) (56%); 3) motivation barriers (33.3%). The main barrier to mHealth was lack of familiarity with technology (66.6%). All pts considered that the intervention was motivating (particularly due to the group effect), promoted personal organization to address time constrictions, subjectively it seemed to promote PA and decrease symptomatology. Technical simplifications (e.g. design changes, improvement of functionality) and information tools were provided for the second group addressing first group barriers which were not further identified. All pts would recommend such an intervention to other pts.
Kiplin®’s app-based mHealth group challenge was deemed feasible in these groups of BC pts with fatigue, being perceived as a promoter of PA engagement. This qualitative exploration aided the improvement of this intervention. Future interventional studies are warranted.
ID - RCB n°: 2017-A02062-51.
INSERM UMR 981.
Susan G. Komen (to Ines Vaz-Luis); Odyssea Organization (to Elise Martin).
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.