Perceived Facilitators and Barriers in Response to a Walking Intervention in Rural Cancer Survivors: A Qualitative Exploration

Lauren J. Frensham, Gaynor Parfitt, Rebecca Stanley and James Dollman
Additional contact information
Lauren J. Frensham: School of Psychology Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Gaynor Parfitt: Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Rebecca Stanley: Early Start, School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, and Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
James Dollman: Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Physical activity has numerous associated benefits for cancer survivors. Compared to their urban counterparts, rural and remote Australians experience a health disadvantage, including poorer survival rate after the diagnosis of cancer. The purpose of this qualitative study was to (a) investigate factors that motivated or inhibited walking in rural participants during a 12-week intervention and (b) to investigate factors that motivated or inhibited physical activity behavior change three months post-intervention. Ten cancer survivors living in rural areas of South Australia participated in a 12-week computer-delivered walking-based intervention during which they reported daily steps, daily affect, and ratings of perceived exertion. Based on this information, individualized daily step goals were sent to them to increase walking. Following the intervention, participants engaged in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded using thematic analysis. Participants identified a range of physical, psychological, social, environmental, and organizational motivators and barriers. Participants appreciated the monitoring and support from the research team, but some voiced a need for better transition to post-program and many desired ongoing support to maintain their motivation. Future studies should incorporate strategies to help walking behavior to become more intrinsically motivated and therefore sustained.

Keywords: cancer survivorship; walking intervention; motivators; barriers; rural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2824/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2824/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2824-:d:189758

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().