A Dance Program to Manage A Fatigue-Sleep Disturbance-Depression Symptom Cluster among Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Feasibility Study

OBJECTIVE: Fatigue, sleep disturbance, and depression (FSD) are highly prevalent among breast cancer (BC) patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy, constituting a common symptom cluster (i.e., FSD cluster). Exercise is effective in relieving fatigue, alleviating sleep disturbance, and improving the quality of life (QoL) during adjuvant chemotherapy among these women. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a dance program with social support elements for managing this symptom cluster. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled design combined with a semi-structured interview was utilized. Twenty consented eligible participants were randomly assigned to a dance group or an attention control group after baseline assessment but before chemotherapy. The feasibility of recruitment, retention, intervention, and data collection procedures and the acceptability of exercise modality, hospital-based instruction, and home-based practice were collected by retrieving information from research documents and interviews by the principal investigator 4 weeks after the start of intervention. RESULTS: The recruitment and retention rates were 86.96% and 100.00%, respectively. Participants took about 30–40 min to complete the questionnaire. All the items were comprehensible. The baseline characteristics were comparable between groups, indicating that randomization was successful. The implementation procedure progressed smoothly. Dancing was considered interesting and easy, and participants would like to practice at home. Only minor adjustments would be needed for future studies. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that the proposed dance program was feasible and acceptable for BC patients in hospital and home settings. A full-scale study is warranted to examine its effects on managing the FSD cluster and promoting QoL.