Postcancer treatment support programme: an evaluation

Charlotte Murray, Jenny Makinson, Lauren Brown, Julia Allan* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: As the number of people living beyond cancer treatment has increased, supportive post-treatment interventions have become increasingly important. The present study investigates whether participation in the Maggie's 'Where Now?' post-cancer support programme is associated with improvements in healthy eating, quality of life, self-efficacy (confidence) or cancer worry.

METHODS: In a pre-post design, 88 people who had completed cancer treatment and were enrolled in the 7-week 'Where Now?' programme at Maggie's centres across the UK rated their diet, activity, quality of life, self-efficacy and cancer worries before and after programme participation. Programme content was coded to identify the techniques used to create change ('behaviour change techniques').

RESULTS: Programme participation was associated with significant improvements in general self-efficacy (p=0.01), self-efficacy about engaging in physical activity (p<0.01), quality of life (p<0.01) and cancer worry (p=0.04) but not with changes in healthy eating (p=0.23).

CONCLUSION: Participation in the 'Where Now?' programme is associated with significant improvements in several key psychological outcomes in people living beyond cancer. The techniques most commonly used in the programme to create change were giving participants instructions about how to perform a particular behaviour, encouraging problemsolving to overcome barriers and setting goals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)e537-e540
Number of pages4
JournalBMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
Volume14
Issue numbere1
Early online date18 Apr 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements: We thank Bethany Mills who collected study data and the staff and service users at Maggie’s who participated in this study.

Keywords

  • cancer
  • cancer worry
  • quality of life
  • self-efficacy
  • survivorship

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