ArticleBMC health services research2020
Computer-assisted textual analysis of free-text comments in the Swiss Cancer Patient Experiences (SCAPE) survey.
Article in BMC health services research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Patient Voice and Treatment Nonadherence in Cancer Care: A Scoping Review of Sentiment Analysis.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Review
- Once HIV Knowledge Is Addressed: HIV-Stigma From the Perspective of Healthcare Professionals Working in HIV Facilities.International journal of public health · 2026Article
- Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer undergoing treatment supported by feedback auditing: the EPIC study.ESMO gastrointestinal oncology · 2025Article
- Work experiences of healthcare professionals in a shortage context: analysis of open-ended comments in a Swiss cohort (SCOHPICA).BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Weakly supervised text classification on free-text comments in patient-reported outcome measures.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Priority setting in dementia palliative care research for people living with dementia and carers: A mixed methods consensus study.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
- Navigating HIV-Related Stigma in Switzerland: A Qualitative Study.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- The added value of the artificial intelligence patient-reported experience measure (AI-PREM tool) in clinical practise: Deployment in a vestibular schwannoma care pathway.PEC innovation · 2023Article
- Patients' experiences with cancer care in Switzerland: Results of a multicentre cross-sectional survey.European journal of cancer care · 2022Article
- Cancer Survivors in Saint Lucia Deeply Value Social Support: Considerations for Cancer Control in Under-Resourced Communities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Quality of Cancer Care in Switzerland: Going Beyond Traditional Quality Indicators by Collecting Patient-Reported Experiences of Cancer Care.Public health reviews · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatient experience surveys are increasingly conducted in cancer care as they provide important results to consider in future development of cancer care and health policymaking. These surveys usually include closed-ended questions (patient-reported experience measures (PREMs)) and space for free-text comments, but published results are mostly based on PREMs. We aimed to identify the underlying themes of patients' experiences as shared in their own words in the Swiss Cancer Patient Experiences (SCAPE) survey and compare these themes with those assessed with PREMs to investigate how the textual analysis of free-text comments contributes to the understanding of patients' experiences of care.
methodsSCAPE is a multicenter cross-sectional survey that was conducted between October 2018 and March 2019 in French-speaking parts of Switzerland. Patients were invited to rate their care in 65 closed-ended questions (PREMs) and to add free-text comments regarding their cancer-related experiences at the end of the survey. We conducted computer-assisted textual analysis using the IRaMuTeQ software on the comments provided by 31% (n = 844) of SCAPE survey respondents (n = 2755).
resultsWe identified five main thematic classes, two of which consisting of a detailed description of 'cancer care pathways'. The remaining three classes were related to 'medical care', 'gratitude and praise', and the way patients lived with cancer ('cancer and me'). Further analysis of this last class showed that patients' comments related to the following themes: 'initial shock', 'loneliness', 'understanding and acceptance', 'cancer repercussions', and 'information and communication'. While closed-ended questions related mainly to factual aspects of experiences of care, free-text comments related primarily to the personal and emotional experiences and consequences of having cancer and receiving care.
conclusionsA computer-assisted textual analysis of free-text in our patient survey allowed a time-efficient classification of free-text data that provided insights on the personal experience of living with cancer and additional information on patient experiences that had not been collected with the closed-ended questions, underlining the importance of offering space for comments. Such results can be useful to inform questionnaire development, provide feedback to professional teams, and guide patient-centered initiatives to improve the quality and safety of cancer care.
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