Occupational adaptation for adults living with advanced cancer: A phenomenological longitudinal study

People living with advanced cancer want to continue participating in their valued occupations amid cancer progression. However, increasing dependence and bodily deterioration challenge a person's ability to do so, thus requiring adaptation to how they engage in their occupations. Theoretical frameworks on the process of occupational adaptation often do not address the implications of progressive functional decline.

A longitudinal phenomenological design was used to understand the lived experience of occupational engagement for working-aged adults living with advanced cancer. A semi-structured interview series explored participants' experience of occupational engagement and how this changed over time. Data were analysed thematically and mapped against the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO).

Eight adults (40-64 years old) participated in 33 interviews over 19 months. Three themes were constructed from the data: ongoing adaptation through doing, the significance of volition in adaptation, and everyday life is contingent on my environment. Study findings demonstrate that the process of adaptation occurs through occupational engagement, is motivated by volition, and is affected by the environment. Volition and the environment play a more central role in occupational adaptation than occupational competency for the advanced cancer cohort.

Study findings further MOHO's theoretical conceptualisation of occupational adaptation by identifying the centrality of volition and the environment in the process of adaptation. For people living with advanced cancer, disease progression results in unremitting functional decline, thus rendering competency an unstable and untenable construct. Rather, this paper argues that occupational adaptation is facilitated by volition (i.e., the motivation behind the doing) and the environment, thus fostering a sense of identity and meaning at the end of life. Occupational therapists' awareness of the significance of volition and the environment can thus foster continued occupational engagement and meaning at the end of life for people living with advanced cancer.