Cognitive Frailty for Young Breast Cancer Survivors After Chemotherapy: Implication for the Design of Health Education Materials

Background: As the most common cancer among women globally, breast cancer often leads to accelerated frailty in younger survivors, particularly during chemotherapy, causing cognitive impairments. This highlights the urgent need for tailored health education materials to address these challenges. Objective: To analyze cognitive load in young breast cancer survivors (YBCSs) after chemotherapy and contribute to the development of more tailored and effective health education materials for this population. Methods: Cognitive load theory informed a semistructured interview guide to investigate the challenges YBCSs face when engaging with health education materials. Results: Eleven participants aged 18–45 years were interviewed. Based on cognitive load theory, 4 themes were identified as follows: symptom burden, impairment of working memory, decrease the intrinsic cognitive load, and decrease the extraneous cognitive load. Conclusions: YBCSs frequently experience cognitive burden due to chemotherapy and perimenopause, which can trigger adverse personal states that lead to working memory overload and depletion. They prefer health education materials that offer credible, relevant information presented in modern formats, particularly short videos lasting around 10 seconds. However, excessive transient information and interactive elements may create unnecessary cognitive load. Implications for Practice: Developing health education materials should focus on conciseness, visual appeal, and small, digestible segments to ease cognitive load. Incorporating storytelling and relatable scenarios can significantly boost engagement and comprehension. What is Foundational: This model, informed by cognitive load theory, could be used as the basis of educational materials of greater care usefulness for these younger survivors of breast cancer.