Influence of making a video cancer narrative in adolescents and young adults on factors impacting self-efficacy

Abstract

Adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology patients often struggle with self-management, leading to poor quality of life and disease outcomes. Interventions that influence self-management skills, particularly self-efficacy, are needed. A growing body of research has suggested engaging with digital narratives can influence health outcomes. This study explored the impacts of a digital narrative on health attitudes and intended health-related behaviors in AYA oncology patients. A mixed methods approach was used to determine if verbalizing content related to health and resiliency impacted AYAs’ self-reported intentions for future health self-management and perceptions of healthcare providers. Youth (N=24) aged 12-18 years created video narratives about their cancer experience and then completed a questionnaire with items addressing self-management and perceptions of medical providers. Narratives were scored for levels of healthcare-related content and linguistic qualities reflecting resilience. Associations between content scores and questionnaire responses were examined via regression. Discussion of one’s health was positively associated with intent to improve health behavior (t = 2.36, <i>p</i> < .05). One linguistic quality reflecting resilience, narrator connectedness, was positively associated with changes in perceptions of providers (t = 2.25, <i>p</i> < .05). Clinicians may consider encouraging digital storytelling as a tool for AYAs to facilitate the development of motivation to manage their health