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AUDIOTAPES AND VIDEOTAPES

Audiotapes have been used by health professionals primarily as a tool in patient education. The growing importance of stress management has led to the use of audiotapes to provide patients with guided imagery and progressive muscular relaxation to aid in stress reduction. They are also used for diabetes education, progressive muscular relaxation, and patient research.

Educational videotapes are perhaps the single most frequently used presentation tool and teaching aid in health-education settings. The advent of the video projector in the mid-1980s allowed programs to be viewed on videotape by large groups much more easily than with the now-obsolete 16mm film and projector. Optimally, educational tapes are short in duration (fifteen to twenty minutes) and focus on either the cognitive or affective domains of learning.

ROBIN G. SAWYER

(SEE ALSO: Communication for Health; Counseling; Health Promotion and Education)