The Patients Concerns Inventory in head and neck cancer: comparison between self-completed paper and touch screen versions in the clinic setting

Background: The Patients Concerns Inventory (PCI) is a practical tool for patients to highlight their concerns and needs for discussion in consultations. Objective: To use paper and touch-screen technology (TST) versions of the PCI, to see if there were differences in issues raised by patients before consultation and in issues discussed during consultation. Methods: Two consultants participated. Also 105 of their post-operative head and neck cancer patients in 122 consultations completed paper or TST versions of the PCI before consultation, April 2010 to April 2012. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between paper and TST in how many PCI concerns were selected by patients or discussed in consultation, nor in length of consultation. Fear of recurrence, chewing/eating, dental health, swallowing, salivation, head & neck pain, speech and sleeping issues were common concerns across both paper and TST. Fewer than 10% of patients encountered any problems when completing either form of PCI. Interestingly, the two consultants used the PCI differently, reflected in different levels of agreement between items highlighted on the PCI and items subsequently discussed – κappa-coefficients of agreement were 0.68 for the paper and 0.66 for the TST version of the PCI (consultant A) and 0.55 for the paper and 0.32 for the TST version of the PCI (consultant B). Conclusions: This study found that the paper version of the PCI was an acceptable alternative to the TST version.