How Healthcare Practitioners Have Supported Their Prostate Cancer Patients to Try and Overcome Barriers to Physical Activity

Physical activity (PA) can provide protective benefits for prostate cancer (PCa) survivors. Healthcare practitioners are ideally positioned to promote PA to their PCa patients. This study was designed to identify how practitioners have advised and supported their PCa patients to try and overcome barriers to PA. A secondary aim was to identify if there were differences in the types of PA advice provided based on practitioner specialty and number of years in practice. Participants were 13 healthcare practitioners from Auckland, New Zealand, who provide biomedical (urology, oncology) and allied health services (physiotherapy) to men who have received a diagnosis of PCa. Participants were individually interviewed and data were analyzed using an inducive thematic approach. Three main themes and four sub-themes were identified. Physical activity advice did not appear to differ based on practitioner specialty or length of time in practice; rather, PA advice was provided to help counteract the associated side effects of specific PCa treatments. Verbal information, encouragement and resources were provided to help support PA. Specialist cancer nurses can provide long-term PA advice and support. Individualized exercise programs through physiotherapy can benefit men receiving active PCa treatment, as well as men in remission experiencing treatment-related side effects.