Speaking legibly: Qualitative perceptions of altered voice among oral tongue cancer survivors.

Objective: Treatment for oral tongue cancer poses unique challenges to restoring and maintaining personally acceptable, intelligible speech. Methods: We report how oral tongue cancer survivors describe their speech after treatment in a qualitative descriptive approach using constant comparative tech...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 250 - 257
Main Authors: Philiponis, Genevieve, Kagan, Sarah H.
Format: research Journal Article
Published: Asian Oncology Nursing Society Oct-Dec2015
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct-Dec2015
      vid: 2
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      pid: 67856
      pub: Asian Oncology Nursing Society
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        10.4103/2347-5625.158020
        112626281
      ppf: 250
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        atl: Speaking legibly: Qualitative perceptions of altered voice among oral tongue cancer survivors.
      aug:
        au:
          Philiponis, Genevieve
          Kagan, Sarah H.
        affil: School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia
      sug:
        subj:
          Deglutition
          Tongue Physiology
          Speech Intelligibility
          Tongue Neoplasms
          Cancer Survivors
          Speech Perception
          Speech
          Patient Centered Care
          Grounded Theory
          Constant Comparative Method
          Child
          Data Analysis
          Data Collection
          Thematic Analysis
          Qualitative Studies
          Content Analysis
          Quantitative Studies
          Prospective Studies
          Interviews
          Validity
          Child: 6-12 years
      ab: Objective: Treatment for oral tongue cancer poses unique challenges to restoring and maintaining personally acceptable, intelligible speech. Methods: We report how oral tongue cancer survivors describe their speech after treatment in a qualitative descriptive approach using constant comparative technique to complete afocal analysis of interview data from a larger grounded theory study of oral tongue cancer survivorship. Interviews were completed with 16 tongue cancer survivors 3 months to 12 years postdiagnosis with stage I-IV disease and treated with surgery alone, surgery and radiotherapy, or chemo-radiation. All interview data from the main study were analyzed for themes describing perceptions of speech as oral tongue cancer survivors. Results: Actual speech impairments varied among survivors. None experienced severe impairments that inhibited their daily lives. However, all expressed some level of concern about speech. Concerns about altered speech began when survivors heard their treatment plans and continued through to survivorship without being fully resolved. The overarching theme, maintaining a pattern and character of speech acceptable to the survivor, was termed "speaking legibly" using one survivor's vivid in vivo statement. Speaking legibly integrate the sub-themes of "fears of sounding unusual," "learning to talk again," "problems and adjustments," and "social impact." Conclusions: Clinical and scientific efforts to further understand and address concerns about speech, personal presentation, and identity among those diagnosed with oral tongue are important to improving care processes and patient-centered experience.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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