Barriers and enablers to exercise prehabilitation before breast cancer surgery in an Australian regional health service: patient and clinician perspective

The study underpins the need for integrating exercise professionals into preoperative teams to address exercise prehabilitation within limited time frames. Patients do not describe psychological barriers and instead report motivation to improve fitness as an enabler of prehabilitation. Clinicians report time constraints in pre-operative appointments as a barrier to prehabilitation. Implementing electronic referral methods alongside traditional approaches may enhance prehabilitation delivery for patients receiving breast cancer surgery. Future research should leverage these findings for prehabilitation referral and program design.