Abstract

Objectives/purpose: To explore and compare the barriers and facilitators to self-management in people living with cancer following treatment from rural and urban areas in the UK.

Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted (n=34) between Oct 2017 – Jul 2018 with post-treatment cancer survivors from the East Midlands of England. Interviews were conducted face-to-face (n=25) and via telephone (n=9). Residency was defined using the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) RUC2011 Rural-Urban Classifications. Data were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. The findings were analysed thematically in NVivo software.

Results: The mean age of participants was 63.88 ± 11.19 (range 39-85), fifty-six per cent were female (n=19) and forty-four per cent male (n=15). Forty-seven per cent (n=16) resided in a rural area and fity three per cent from urban areas (n=18). With regard to barriers that prevented participants from engaging with self-management, there were three themes (1) location (2) relationship based and (3) personal. In relation to facilitators to self-management there were also three themes (1) effective communication and information (2) informal and peer support and (3) motivation. The identified barriers and facilitators were prevalent in both the rural and urban setting, however, some aspects were more explicit in either of the respective environments.

Conclusion: The barriers and facilitators that were identified were not always unique to the rural or urban environment suggesting that residency and place is not as unequivocal as some of the extant literature on rural-urban health would suggest.