Video Resources for People With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

The use of online sources of information for chronic disease management has steadily increased over recent years as technology becomes more intertwined with healthcare 1-3. Older adults, including those with COPD are now more likely to access online based video resources for information and advice on how to help their symptoms and health related quality of life using smart phones and tablets 2. During the Covid-19 pandemic many healthcare services, patient support groups and individuals living with chronic diseases produced video content that is freely accessible online 4. A recent project by the IPCRG to curate evidence-based video resources into a digital magazine discovered that content quality varied vastly and gaps in resources still remained 5. With the growing use of online video resources there is a need to establish what video resources need to have in terms of content, quality and personal appeal for people living with COPD to successfully use at aid self-management 6,7. The digital magazine was created with the understanding that it would be accessible to those who were not digitally excluded and appeal to those who had adequate digital literacy skills, however there are people with COPD who are digitally excluded and have varying degrees of digital literacy skills 8,9. The magazine format was chosen to provide a recognisable and easily navigated format however, it is not clear what formats, access and literacy levels are necessary to support the use of online video resources, in particular this digital magazine-based collation of videos 8.

The aims of this study are to

1. evaluate the use of the digital magazine format with video self-management content from an end user perspective, including
2. what characteristics a good video resource should have
3. what information is important to people with COPD to include in videos and digital magazines,
4. the useability of a digital magazine format
5. Explore the opinions, experiences and preferences of people living with COPD for accessing online self-management content including barriers and facilitators for accessing online self-management video content

3-4 focus groups of ideally 4-8 people with COPD in each group will be conducted to discuss the use and make up of online self-management video content and wider experience of using online video resources for health information.

People with COPD will be recruited using the networks of those involved in the IPCRG project such as UK based support and exercise groups for people with COPD

Once returned, participants will be booked into online or face to face focus groups of around 4-8 people. Prior to attending to the focus groups, participants will be (1) asked to complete an eHEALS measure of digital literacy either over the phone with a researcher or return an electronic copy and (2) they will be requested to review a digital magazine.

The focus group will be facilitated by a researcher with experience in respiratory rehabilitation who has not been involved in developing the digital magazine based on a topic guide developed using extant literature and steering group discussions.

Focus groups would be transcribed verbatim and analysed by a steering group member with experience in respiratory rehabilitation and the researcher who facilitated the focus groups separately using NVivo software and an inductive thematic analysis approach 10. Themes will be discussed with a further researcher and finalised by consensus