This study was designed to demonstrate the advantage of adding cancer barriers to components of decision-making in the transtheoretical model (TTM). In study 1, questionnaires were completed by 139 breast cancer… Click to show full abstract
This study was designed to demonstrate the advantage of adding cancer barriers to components of decision-making in the transtheoretical model (TTM). In study 1, questionnaires were completed by 139 breast cancer survivors including decisional balance, cancer-related barriers and stages of readiness. In study 2, efficiency of directly tackling cancer-related barriers through motivational-style conversation was tested in a quasi-experimental design. From study 1, all decisionmaking variables were related to stages of readiness, but cancer-related barriers were the sole predictors of engagement in physical activity. Out of the three groups of study 2, only the group with motivational-style conversation displayed a significant progress for engagement in physical activity. Demonstrating that cancer-related barriers predict stage of change above the effects of the two components of decisional balance provides a validation of positions that put cancer-related barriers as uniquely related to stages of change, and suggests that adding them in decision making variables in TTM’s model can provide a genuinely new contribution to the understanding of physical activity adherence. Regarding implication for cancer survivors, these results suggest that in order to stimulate progress in early stages of change, a greater emphasis may be needed on reducing cancer-related barriers.
               
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