Helping Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Understand Dysphagia: Exploring the Use of Video-Animation

Abstract

Purpose Patients newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer should be informed of the ramifications of cancer treatment on swallowing function during their pretreatment consultation. The purpose of this study was to explore (a) the usefulness and (b) the acceptability of video-animation in helping patients to understand the basics of the swallowing mechanism and dysphagia. Method Thirteen patients treated for head and neck cancer participated in this study. Think-aloud, a type of qualitative methodology, was used to encourage patients to verbalize their thoughts while watching two short video-animations showing the process of normal/abnormal swallowing. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Four main themes were identified as follows: (a) patient interest and engagement, (b) acceptability of visual imagery and narration, (c) information provision and learning, and (d) personal relevance and intended action. Patients appeared interested and engaged in the video-animations, asking several spontaneous questions about how to maintain or improve swallowing function. Learning was evident from patients' recognition and verbalizations of grossly disordered swallowing patterns. Most patients reported the images to be visually acceptable and could often relate what they were seeing to their own swallowing experience. Many patients also verbalized recognition of the need to keep muscles active through exercises. Conclusions These results suggest that the video-animations of swallowing were acceptable, interesting, informative, and relevant for most patients. It was therefore useful not only as an education tool, but also showed potential to influence patients' intentions to undertake preventative interventions that may preserve better swallowing function after cancer treatment.