an ecological momentary assessment of self-management in prostate cancer survivors

To assess the ‘real-time’ self-management strategies employed by prostate cancer survivors to inform personalised supportive care interventions in the future. a purposive sampling framework was used to recruit men with different stages of cancer and treatment to an ecological momentary assessment (capturing experiences in real time) study. each participant was prompted by an audio alert to complete self-report questionnaires three times per day (93 data entries in total) for a total duration of 31 days. the personal digital assistant (pda) and pocket interview software were used. prostate cancer survivors experienced a wide range of after-effects of therapy for which they used various self-management strategies. many of the men experienced sexual dysfunction but did not perform any self-management. our findings reinforce the importance of having access to tailored, timely and person-centred supported self-management care plans. real-time monitoring data can provide helpful information to facilitate tailored recommendations for self-management. prostate cancer survivors can experience unmet supportive care needs which increase men’s demands to perform self-management of their condition. future clinical intervention studies aimed at utilising the remote exchange of real-time data serves to optimise tailored supported self-management.