"When I am able to ride my bike, then I think, am I at all as sick as they say?": Perceptions of illness among men with lung cancer

Introduction
Despite an increasing number of cancer rehabilitation services becoming available in Denmark, participation in cancer rehabilitation remains low among men.
Studies have shown that motivation for participating in cancer rehabilitation is influenced by the ways people perceive their health and illness.

Studies conducted among people with cancer, in general, show that their understandings of illness and health can be multifaceted and associated with factors beyond those representing the health professionals’ biomedical perspective. For instance, people with cancer may associate being healthy with having a meaningful everyday life.

Knowledge of how men with lung cancer understand their illness and health can be a prerequisite for motivating them to participate in cancer rehabilitation and to develop rehabilitation services they perceive as meaningful and relevant to their daily life.


Purpose
The purpose of this ongoing study is to explore how men with lung cancer form perceptions of illness and health in their daily life.

Method and content
Data is collected and analyzed following grounded theory guidelines from approximately 15 men with lung cancer using in-depth interviews.

Perspectives
The preliminary results indicate that being ill is not a static feeling. Rather, being ill is a feeling that is contextual, fluctuates over time, and connected to what the men are doing. Cutting the hedges or walking in the woods, taking pictures, can change their perception of their health status and even call them into questioning whether they are truly ill.
The results call for healthcare professionals to adopt a broad perspective of illness and health when developing rehabilitation services that align with how men with lung cancer perceive themselves and their illness. Lack of understanding among healthcare professionals of how men perceive their illness could cause misunderstandings and increase the risk of rehabilitation services being perceived as irrelevant or alienating.