Sexual wellbeing resources in cancer care v2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Adapting, testing and evaluation of educational/facilitative resources to enable healthcare professionals working in cancer care to support patients and partners with sexual wellbeing.
IRAS ID
259926
Contact name
Cherith Semple
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ulster University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Many aspects of patients’ and their family’s lives are affected by cancer, including physical, social and psychological wellbeing. One challenge that is well documented is the impact of cancer and its treatments on patient’s sexual wellbeing (Bober and Varela 2012). There is high variability in patient experience of sexual challenges (Bober and Varela 2012); this is determined by the type of cancer, their treatments and many other factors including self-esteem. Patients face challenges with erectile dysfunction, vaginal dryness, changes to sexual desire, difficulties with body image, confidence, and low mood. Relationships can experience serious distress (McClure et al. 2012). Partners in addition to changes to sexuality and intimacy, can experience changes in role and dynamics within their relationship (Ussher et al. 2011).
Patients want support with these challenges, identifying a need for Healthcare Professionals (HPs) to acknowledge, normalise and integrate sexual wellbeing support into routine care, advising and referring them appropriately (Lindau et al. 2011; Leonardi-Warren et al. 2016). However, HPs often avoid these conversations for reasons including lack of awareness, fear of offending, knowledge of referral pathways etc (O’Connor et al. 2018).
The Maximising Sexual Wellbeing: Prostate Cancer collaboration has recently developed online resources to support HPs, patients and partners with sexual wellbeing. The purpose of this study is to adapt two of these resources for general cancer care using Yardley et al. (2015) 3-phased Person Based Approach. The resources are an e-learning module and a facilitative tablet-based resource.
Phase 1 will adapt each of the two resources from prostate cancer to general cancer care;
Phase 2 will test and refine the content and structure of the two resources and
Phase 3 will evaluate the two resources.Bober, S.L. and Varela, V.S. (2012) Sexuality in adult cancer survivors: challenges and intervention. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 30(30), 3712-3719.McClure, K.S., Nezu, A.M.,
Leonardi-Warren, K., Neff, I., Mancuso, M., Wenger, B., Galbraith, M. and Fink, R. (2016) Sexual Health: Exploring Patient Needs and Healthcare Provider Comfort and Knowledge. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 20(6), 162-167.
Lindau, S.T., Surawska, H., Paice, J. and Baron, S.R. (2011) Communication about sexuality and intimacy in couples affected by lung cancer and their clinical‐care providers. Psycho‐Oncology, 20(2), 179-185.
McClure, K.S., Nezu, A.M., Nezu, C.M., O'hea, E.L. and McMahon, C. (2012) Social problem solving and depression in couples coping with cancer. Psycho‐Oncology, 21(1), 11-19.
O'Connor, S., Connaghan, J., Maguire, R., Kotronoulas, G. and Flannagan, C. & McCaughan, E. (2018) Healthcare professional perceived barriers and facilitators to discussing sexual wellbeing with patients after diagnosis of chronic illness: A mixed-methods evidence synthesis. Patient Education and Counselling, 102(5), 850-863.
Ussher, J.M., Tim Wong, W.K. and Perz, J. (2011) A qualitative analysis of changes in relationship dynamics and roles between people with cancer and their primary informal carer. Health:, 15(6), 650-667.
Yardley, L., Ainsworth, B., Arden-Close, E. and Muller, I. (2015) The person-based approach to enhancing the acceptability and feasibility of interventions. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 1(1), 37.REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
19/NI/0175
Date of REC Opinion
3 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion