This is what life with cancer looks like: exploring experiences of adolescent and young adults with cancer using two visual approaches (original) (raw)

Introduction Talking about illness experience can be challenging for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Visual tools, in addition to spoken language, might make this easier, such as rich pictures and photovoice. We aimed to obtain a comprehensive view of the cancer experience of AYAs by using rich pictures and photovoice. Methods AYAs (18–35 years old) who had any type of cancer, or were in remission from cancer, were eligible. AYAs drew rich pictures about their experience of living with cancer and explained these during subsequent interviews. Some of the AYAs also participated in photovoice and spent two days with a photographer to make photos about their illness experience. Rich pictures and photos were first analyzed separately, using open coding, after which the identified themes were compared. Results Twelve AYAs made rich pictures (RPs), of whom seven also participated in photovoice. The two most predominant themes emerging from the data were struggles related t...