ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CANCER INFORMATION SEEKING VIA INTERNET AND CANCER FATALISTIC BELIEFS AMONG AMERICANS USING HEALTH INFORMATION NATIONAL TRENDS SURVEY

• Published in: Value in health Vol. 20; no. 5; p. A131
• Main Authors: Acharya, M, Bhandari, NR, Payakachat, N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lawrenceville Elsevier Science Ltd 01.05.2017
• Subjects: Behavior; Cancer; College graduates; Demography; Diet; Disease prevention; Health beliefs; Health information; Information seeking behavior; Internet; Oncology; Polls & surveys; Prevention programs; Smoking; Sociodemographics
• ISSN: 1098-3015; 1524-4733
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jval.2017.05.005

OBJECTIVES: To determine association between internet cancer information seeking behavior and cancer fatalistic beliefs across people with and without cancer history. We hypothesized that the behavior would mitigate cancer fatalistic thoughts on cancer prevention and treatment. METHODS: A pooled cross-sectional study was conducted among US adults (≥ 18 years) using Health Information National Trends Survey 2012 and 2014 data. Participants were categorized into two groups: with and without cancer history. The behavior of interest was whether they sought cancer information for themselves via internet (the eSeekers) in past 12 months (yes/no). Fatalistic beliefs were operationalized by participants' agreement or disagreement with three statements along the lines of everything causes cancer, cancer prevention is not possible, and too many recommendations are available for preventing cancer. Each fatalistic belief was analyzed separately across both groups. Weighted descriptive bivariate analyses were used to explore associations between socio-demographic factors and each fatalistic belief. Adjusted multivariable logistic regression was then employed to examine association between internet cancer information seeking behavior and each fatalistic belief. RESULTS: Of the total 5,454 participants, 1,022 (18.7%) reported using internet for seeking cancer information. Greater proportions of the eSeekers were aged 35-64 years, college graduates, urban dwellers, and with either personal or family cancer history. The eSeekers also reported higher agreement on behaviors (such as diet, smoking, exercise) cause cancer (p<0.001). The eSeekers without cancer history were 38% less likely to believe that they were overwhelmed with many recommendations for preventing cancer (Adj.OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.44-0.86). However, internet cancer information seeking behavior was insignificantly associated with the other fatalistic beliefs across both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Information seeking is a desired behavior for cancer prevention. However, we did not observe significant associations between the behavior and two out of the three cancer fatalistic beliefs across participants with and without cancer history.