ORCID
0000-0002-1447-8393 (Parson)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.1007/s11764-025-01750-3
Publication Title
Journal of Cancer Survivorship
Volume
Article in Press
Pages
14 pp.
Abstract
Purpose: We evaluated healthcare providers' current knowledge, practices, and perspectives on a novel clinical decision tool (beta-version) to facilitate individualized exercise prescriptions and discussions in clinical settings.
Methods: We recruited healthcare providers who had treated or provided care to breast cancer survivors aged >= 35-years in the past 12 months. The participants were presented with a tool to provide individualized exercise recommendations considering women's individual, clinical, and contextual characteristics. Validated and reliable pre-existing instruments were used to survey providers' current knowledge, practices regarding exercise discussions, and perspectives on the beta-version (paper-draft) of the novel tool.
Results: The sample consisted of complete survey responses from 177 healthcare providers including breast oncologists (27.7%), primary care physicians (10.7%), exercise specialists (19.8%), occupational/physical therapists (18.1%), advanced care providers, nurses, navigators, and social workers (23.7%). Median years of experience was 8-years (range: 5-13). Overall, 62.1% (n = 110) reported that they were knowledgeable about counseling survivors based on exercise guidelines. Among breast oncologists and primary care physicians (n = 68), only 39.7% reported that they were knowledgeable about identifying patients for exercise referrals. The majority agreed that they would find the tool offering individualized information useful (n = 148, 83.6%), and would use it regularly to inform practice (82.5%). 'Exercise Readiness', 'Exercise Resources at Home', and 'Quality-of-Life' were the highest rated items for inclusion in the tool for exercise prescriptions. Provider perspectives were incorporated into the beta-version of the tool.
Conclusion: A clinical decision tool considering individual, clinical, and contextual characteristics may support exercise prescriptions and discussions in clinical settings. Implications for cancer survivors: An evidence-based tool for exercise prescriptions may increase healthcare provider confidence to discuss, educate, encourage, and provide exercise referrals for breast cancer survivors.
Implications for cancer survivors: An evidence-based tool for exercise prescriptions may increase healthcare provider confidence to discuss, educate, encourage, and provide exercise referrals for breast cancer survivors.
Rights
© 2025 The Authors.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S. Foreign copyright may apply.
Data Availability
Article states: "No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study."
Original Publication Citation
Jayasekera, J., Wilson, O. W. A., Wojcik, K. M., Kerr, E. M., Brick, R., Berrigan, D., Sheng, J. Y. S., Fujii, T., Thomas, K., Parson, H. K., Rajagopal, P. S., & Street, R. L., Jr. (2025). Healthcare provider perspectives on a clinical decision tool to support individualized exercise prescriptions and discussions for breast cancer survivors. Journal of Cancer Survivorship. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-025-01750-3
Repository Citation
Jayasekera, J., Wilson, O. W. A., Wojcik, K. M., Kerr, E. M., Brick, R., Berrigan, D., Sheng, J. Y. S., Fujii, T., Thomas, K., Parson, H. K., Rajagopal, P. S., & Street, R. L., Jr. (2025). Healthcare provider perspectives on a clinical decision tool to support individualized exercise prescriptions and discussions for breast cancer survivors. Journal of Cancer Survivorship. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-025-01750-3
Supplementary Material