title: Clustering techniques for organizing cancer-related concepts into meaningful groups for patients.
abstract: A major challenge in the design of Internet support for patients is to organize the content in a way that patients perceive as meaningful and easy to find. We used card sorting and clustering techniques to understand how patients organize cancer-related symptoms and problems into meaningful groups, and compared their symptom categorizations to those done by professional nurses. Patients sorted symptoms into significantly fewer groups than nurses, and had difficulties in distinguishing between symptom types and their associations. Nurses typically organized symptoms by physiological or physical body structure, and classified problems around physical, emotional, and social functioning. This study shows how patients categorize symptoms and problems differently from the professionally-oriented conceptual structures of disease. We used this information to improve the design of a cancer patient support system.
authors.affiliation: Center for Shared Decision Making, Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Roar
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruland
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Slaughter
authors.forename: Trine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Wenche
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms; D009726:Nurses; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010361:Patients; D012944:Social Support; D014584:User-Computer Interface