‘Eating with Others’: planning, developing and optimising a self-management intervention to promote social eating for patients living with and beyond head and neck cancer

Introduction: After treatment for head and neck cancer (HNC), up to 90% of patients have difficulties eating and drinking. Despite the enormity of challenges explicitly relating to the social dimension of eating, there are limited extant interventions to specifically support social eating, nor any replicable for use in contemporary clinical practice. This study aims to plan, develop and optimise a self-management intervention to promote social eating for patients living with and beyond HNC. Methods: This research was intervention development of a self-management ‘Eating with Others’ resource, guided by the person-based approach (PBA) framework. Initially, a systematic review was conducted, with 24 included studies exploring HNC patients’ social eating experiences, followed by thematically analysed qualitative interviews with patients (n = 14), family members (n = 12) and healthcare professionals (n = 13). Alongside this data, iterative input was sought from an advisory group (n = 22) to culminate in an intervention prototype. The intervention prototype was iteratively user-tested over three cycles for usability and acceptability, using think-aloud interviews (n = 10). Results: A patient-centred, evidence-based and theory-driven self-management resource, entitled ‘Eating with Others’, was designed to promote social eating for patients with HNC. Sections included the benefits of social eating; the impact of HNC on social eating, strategies and reflective activities to overcome social eating barriers; and the use of a social eating card for restaurants. The think-aloud interviews revealed that the resource was appropriate and acceptable for patients with HNC. Conclusion: The systematic and iterative PBA intervention development framework enabled empirical research findings, relevant theory and extensive advisory group involvement to design an acceptable self-management social eating intervention for patients living with and beyond HNC. Mixed-methods evaluation is required to determine feasibility in clinical practice.