Telerehabilitation was perceived to facilitate positive exercise intentions among cancer survivors, but ongoing support after telerehabilitation is likely needed to act on those intentions due to health-related difficulties.
Key Findings
Results
The overarching theme from participant interviews was that telerehabilitation was perceived to facilitate positive exercise intentions.
Seventeen adult cancer survivors aged 21 to 80 were purposively sampled 4 months after completing exercise-based cancer telerehabilitation.
Data were collected via semistructured interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.
Data were coded independently by two researchers and analyzed inductively within an interpretive description framework.
The study was embedded in a randomized controlled trial evaluating exercise-based cancer telerehabilitation delivered in groups.
Results
Participants reported feeling empowered to exercise through knowledge, opportunity, and connection gained through telerehabilitation.
These three elements — knowledge, opportunity, and connection — were identified as key mechanisms through which telerehabilitation facilitated empowerment.
Participants were purposively sampled to capture diverse experiences 4 months post-program completion.
The empowerment theme emerged inductively from the interview data rather than being a predetermined category.
Results
Participants described acting on their positive exercise intentions to varying degrees following telerehabilitation, depending on their context.
The degree to which positive intentions translated into actual exercise behavior varied among the 17 participants.
Individual context was identified as a key factor influencing the translation of intention into behavior.
This variation suggests that positive intent instilled by telerehabilitation did not uniformly result in sustained exercise behavior.
Results
Exercise was identified as challenging in the 'new reality' created by cancer, constituting a subtheme of the analysis.
Comorbidities, ongoing side effects, previous exercise experience, and personal factors were considered by some participants to influence their ability to exercise.
This subtheme highlights that cancer-related health challenges persisted as barriers to exercise even 4 months after completing telerehabilitation.
The phrase 'new reality created by cancer' was used to characterize the changed health context participants navigated post-treatment.
Conclusions
Participation in telerehabilitation may be a positive first step to initiate exercise, but ongoing support is likely needed to maintain positive behavior changes, especially for those without previous exercise experience.
Cancer survivors may need ongoing support after telerehabilitation to act on positive exercise intentions due to health-related difficulties.
Previous exercise experience was identified as a factor influencing the ability to sustain exercise behavior post-telerehabilitation.
The findings suggest telerehabilitation alone may be insufficient to produce durable behavior change in all cancer survivors.
The study interval was 4 months post-program completion, providing a medium-term perspective on exercise behavior maintenance.
What This Means
This research suggests that an online group exercise program (telerehabilitation) for cancer survivors helped participants feel motivated and capable of exercising, primarily by giving them knowledge about exercise, access to opportunities, and a sense of social connection. Researchers interviewed 17 cancer survivors about their exercise habits four months after they finished the program, and found that while participants generally had positive attitudes toward exercise after the program, whether they actually continued exercising varied considerably from person to person.
The study found that ongoing health challenges — such as side effects from cancer treatment, other health conditions, and individual personal factors — made it difficult for many survivors to follow through on their good intentions to exercise. People who had little prior exercise experience before the program seemed to have a harder time maintaining the habit afterward. This suggests that the telerehabilitation program was effective at building motivation and intent, but that intent alone does not always translate into lasting behavior change.
This research suggests that telerehabilitation may be a valuable starting point for getting cancer survivors engaged with exercise, but that many people are likely to need continued support beyond the program to keep exercising regularly. For healthcare providers and program designers, this points to the importance of not treating a single telerehabilitation program as a complete solution, but rather as one component of a longer-term support system for cancer survivors trying to build and sustain healthy exercise habits.
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Dennett A, Peiris C, Rimayanti M, Barton C, Taylor N, Harding K, et al.. (2026). A qualitative study of cancer survivors' exercise behaviour 4 months after a telerehabilitation program.. Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-026-11016-y