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Perceptions of weight management counseling among gynecologic cancer survivors: opportunities for enhancing survivorship care

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Abstract

Purpose

Oncology practice guidelines recommend incorporating weight management efforts throughout survivorship care; however, some oncologists raise concerns about implementing weight management counseling without damaging patient-provider relationships. This study explores cancer survivors’ receptivity to weight management counseling and examines whether views of counseling effectiveness are associated with individual characteristics including health-related perceptions or psychological distress.

Methods

Patients presenting to a NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center gynecologic oncology ambulatory clinic were asked to complete a survey assessing health and weight history, health perceptions, psychological distress, provider preferences, and weight management counseling perceptions.

Results

Two hundred forty-four gynecologic cancer patients (38% endometrial, 37% ovarian, 16% cervical, 8% other) completed surveys. Mean participant BMI was 31.6 (SD = 9.6); 69% were overweight/obese. Most survivors (≥85%) agreed that oncologists should discuss healthy eating, exercise, and weight loss; only 14% reported receiving weight management counseling from their oncologist. 79% reported being more likely to attempt weight loss if counseled by a physician; 59% reported counseling would not be offensive. Regression results indicated that viewing weight management counseling as effective was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and greater enjoyment of physical activity, while viewing counseling unfavorably was associated with a history of attempting multiple weight loss strategies and an overall view of healthy behaviors as less beneficial (ps < .05).

Conclusions

Most gynecologic cancer survivors want weight management counseling from oncologists and believe counseling is effective rather than deleterious, yet obesity remains inadequately addressed. Results from this study highlight important topics to be incorporated into weight management counseling.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Jesse Mesenburg for assistance with data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Alexandra K. Zaleta & Kristen M. Carpenter

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Robert Neff, David M. O’Malley & Kristen M. Carpenter

  3. Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Georgia A. McCann

Authors
  1. Alexandra K. Zaleta
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  2. Robert Neff
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  3. Georgia A. McCann
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  4. David M. O’Malley
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  5. Kristen M. Carpenter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristen M. Carpenter.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

National Cancer Institute T32 CA090223 provided support for Dr. Carpenter and participant gift cards.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent, with a waiver of written consent, was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zaleta, A.K., Neff, R., McCann, G.A. et al. Perceptions of weight management counseling among gynecologic cancer survivors: opportunities for enhancing survivorship care. Support Care Cancer 25, 1537–1545 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3552-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3552-0

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