From Evidence to Action: Stakeholder Views on Sharing Exercise Oncology Findings

Exercise is an effective intervention at mitigating many of the sequalae of cancer and its treatments. However, a scarcity of exercise services for cancer survivors remains, highlighting a research-to-practice gap. Accordingly, there is considerable rationale to explore strategies to enhance the implementation of exercise oncology trial findings into clinical practice. Dissemination is the active process of spreading research findings to key stakeholders and is crucial to the implementation of evidence base practice. However, little is known regarding the optimal methods of disseminating results of exercise oncology trials. To this end, this project aimed to explore the viewpoints of stakeholders (patients/ health care professionals (HCPs)/ policy makers/ researchers) on the dissemination of exercise oncology trials. Stakeholders were invited to take part in a one-to-one semi-structured interview exploring their experiences of and preferences for exercise oncology trial dissemination. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using a thematic approach. Thirty stakeholders were recruited: patients with a history of cancer (n=14), health care professionals (HCPs) (n=3), researchers (n=10), and policy makers/ health care management (n=3). Median interview length was 14 minutes and 10 seconds (range 8 minutes 16 seconds to 37 minutes and 23 seconds). Three main themes were identified: i) The need for enhanced dissemination strategies, ii) engaging stakeholders throughout the study lifespan is key to facilitating effective dissemination and iii) tools to facilitate closing the research to practice gap. Stakeholders acknowledged that there is limited awareness amongst the public regarding the benefits of exercise across the cancer trajectory, and that accessible and trustworthy information delivered through a variety of mediums to target different stakeholders is required. Stakeholders felt strongly that research outputs need to be targeted to the interests of key stakeholders to aid the integration of evidence into practice, and that buy-in from clinicians is paramount to integrating exercise into usual care. Results of this qualitative study highlight there is a need for more widespread and targeted dissemination of exercise oncology trial results. Stakeholders recommended a comprehensive approach to dissemination to help mitigate the research to practice gap.