Introduction
Methods
Design
Procedure and population
Practice and organization of breast cancer care in the Netherlands
Interview preparation
Data collection
Data analysis
Results
Characteristics | General Practitioners N = 16 | Oncologists N = 6 | Specialized nurses* N = 6 | Dieticians N = 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age, mean (range) y | 46 (32–63) | 47.6 (40–63) | 48.5 (33–60) | 33.8 (26–38) |
Gender | ||||
Male | 7 | 3 | – | – |
Female | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
Workplace: | ||||
Hospital: oncology dept. | 6 | 4 | ||
Surgical dept. | – | 2 | ||
All departments | 6 | |||
GPs: practices in a village Practices in a city | 9 7 |
I. HCPs information provision concerning weight gain, nutrition and physical activity
Nurses confirmed that they provide more detailed information. They clarify the information given by the oncologists and answer the patient’s questions such as: “What do I need to eat?’ and “What do I need to avoid?” Nurses did not consider it necessary to enforce restrictions during treatment concerning dietary intake and supplements:“The nurse practitioner is actually their first contact. So that is the person who will particularly focus on side effects if they [the patients] have a question…” (Oncologist)
Nurses of the surgical departments, however, said they did not consider discussing nutrition:“We advise the patients to just eat normal foods, it will be just fine, enough vegetables and a variety of fruit......When they want to eat unhealthy, it is also allowed” (Nurse practitioners oncology).
Especially oncologists stated that the only information they gave about nutrition was based on their common sense because it is not part of their training. They said they do not have sufficient knowledge about nutrition for expert advice to their patients. Most of the oncologists actually said they are not concerned about the long term health risks of weight gain during and after chemotherapy. They considered it as neither important nor relevant to discuss it with women during the therapy:“For us it is not an important topic to bring up. We think it is more important the patient feels well, has sufficient energy.......” (Mamma Care nurse surgical department).
In the hospitals HCPs monitored weight changes as side-effect of chemotherapy, but based on the guidelines the focus was towards weight loss and hardly on weight gain. Although Mamma care nurses said they sometimes met women who do experience problems with weight gain, they did not undertake action:“I do not often ask patients about their weight gain or what they eat during CT. Is it really necessary, at that moment, for them to eat healthy...?” (Oncologist).
According to most of the HCPs, women deal with weight gain in two different ways: (1) women are unhappy with the gained kilograms: they dislike the fat around their belly and they need to buy bigger clothes which negatively impacts their self-image, or (2) women do not worry at all about the extra kilos and seem to accept it. This is why some oncologists found it difficult to talk about it and struggled how they should deal with women with weight gain:“I cannot refer these women to a dietician or someone….. It is a matter of two, three kilograms mostly, that is not an enormous weight gain”. (Mamma care nurse).
Dieticians experienced few or no possibilities at all to support women with weight gain:“I have the impression that weight and nutrition to them, as far as I can see ...is not a big issue...it is up to the patient whether they experience a few kilos more as a problem. The question is whether you should discuss this when women are overwhelmed with surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy... ? (Oncologist).
All HCPs said they always discussed physical activity and advise women to stay physically active during and after chemotherapy. But they were not aimed at actually supporting patients in these activities. In their opinion physical activity contributes to feeling healthy and well, even though they understand that women are less physically active because of having cancer and being fatigue. HCPs did not associate a lack of physical activity with weight gain.“We only see patients on the basis of the guideline focused on undernutrition, we hardly see patients with involuntary weight gain. I think it is a group which falls between two stools...” (Dietician).
II Exchange of information between health care professionals
III HCPs’ perspectives on responsibility of executing care about weight gain
IV HCPs’ perspectives on their possibilities to optimize care about weight gain
Nurse practitioners oncology recommended more time for informing women with breast cancer about the possibility of weight gain and to monitor them during and after chemotherapy. One of them proposed a standardized screening to monitor not only weight loss, but also weight gain, by adding questions to the Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaires (SNAQ) used in most of the hospitals in the Netherlands. All oncologists agreed it is mainly the responsibility of the nurse practitioners oncology. Dieticians recommend consultations for patients with breast cancer in non-hospital dietician practices, presuming that such consultations are easier to organize outside the hospitals.“...I think, perhaps there needs to be more attention to nutrition and weight gain- also in our specialist training. I cannot remember that we were taught about the effects of nutrition, at any time at all” (Oncologist)