Abstract: Objective: To discuss the effect of sandplay therapy on the patients' stigma and coping style after head and neck cancer operation. Methods: Totally 95 postoperative patients with head and neck cancer were divided into control group (n=47) and intervention group (n=48). Patients in the control group were given routine discharge education and psychological nursing, and patients in the intervention group were treated with sand table hand swimming therapy on the basis of routine discharge education. The total score of stigma and the scores of face, avoidance and surrender dimensions in the medical coping scale of the two groups at different time points were analyzed by repeated analysis of variance. Results: There were significant differences in the group main effect, time main effect and interaction effect of stigma, face, avoidance and surrender dimensions between the two groups (P<0.05). The results of simple effect analysis showed that the score of stigma, face and surrender dimensions were significantly different between the two groups after 1, 2 and 4 months, and avoidance dimension after 2 and 4 months (P<0.05). Among them, the scores of stigma, avoidance and surrender of the sand table mobile therapy group were lower than those of the control group, while the score of face dimension was higher than those of the control group. Conclusion: Sandplay therapy can significantly reduce the stigma level of patients with head and neck cancer, improve their coping style, and has a satisfactory effect.

Key words: head and neck cancer; stigma; sandplay therapy; Virtual Mobile games