Health behaviour advice to cancer patients: the perspective of social network members

Background:

Survival for many cancers is improved by healthier lifestyles, but giving lifestyle advice to cancer patients may seem insensitive. We investigated attitudes of members of cancer patients'' social networks towards doctors giving lifestyle advice.

Methods:

We identified social network members through a population survey of UK adults (n=2024, age ⩾50) by asking respondents whether anyone close to them had ever had cancer (n=1273). Individuals with a cancer diagnosis themselves (n=222) were termed cancer survivors. Attitudes towards doctors giving advice to cancer patients on physical activity, diet and weight were each assessed with eight items.

Results:

Most social network members (88–93%) and survivors (87–93%) agreed that advice on diet, activity and weight would be ‘beneficial'', ‘helpful'' and ‘encouraging'', and 84–87% thought it was ‘the doctor''s duty'' to provide it. Few network members (10–18%) or survivors (10–24%) believed it was ‘unnecessary'', ‘interfering'', ‘insensitive'' or implied ‘blame''. Adjusted analyses using composite scores showed that attitudes did not differ between the groups.

Conclusion:

Few cancer survivors or members of social networks of individuals with cancer thought lifestyle advice would be insensitive, and most thought it would be beneficial. These results help counter doubts about the acceptability of lifestyle advice in the cancer context.