A Web-Based Multimedia Intervention for Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Experimenteel: My Journey AHead

Several internet modules will be developed to address mouth and swallowing concerns, oral care, healthy eating, speech problems, coping with cancer, pain management, and physical therapy.

Gedragsmatig: My Journey AHead

The intervention program will contain information and interactive activities around swallowing concerns, proper oral care, healthy eating and nutrition, speech issues, stress and coping with cancer, and pain management.

Patient Distress

Psychological distress will be assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory-18. The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is an 18-item scale widely used to measure psychological distress. The BSI-18 yields a total score (Global Severity Index), which is a measure of overall psychological distress. Raw scores are converted to t-scores (range 0-100) based on gender-specific normative data from cancer patient populations. A t-score of 50 is equal to the mean of the population. Higher scores represent greater levels of distress. The BSI-18 provides a clinical case-rule classifying respondents who have a t-score score ≥ 63 on the GSI as having clinically significant symptoms. Other studies have used a lower cutoff, with a GSI t-score ≥ 57 recommended as a cutoff for clinically significant symptoms in a study of cancer patients.