Cancer Survivors’ Emotional Well-being: Roles of Internet Information Seeking, Patient-centered Communication, and Social Support

Abstract

Cancer survivors’ emotional well-being is an integral part of their overall health and may influence their recovery and survival. The current study used the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 2 (N = 593) to evaluate the determinants of cancer survivors’ emotional well-being. Internet cancer information seeking, social support, patient-centered communication, cancer beliefs, and self-efficacy to take care of one’s health were examined as factors to be associated with cancer survivors’ emotional well-being using structural equation modeling. Social support, cancer beliefs, and self-efficacy to take care of one’s health were found to be significantly associated with emotional well-being among cancer survivors. Cancer beliefs mediated the associations of cancer information seeking using the Internet, social support, and patient-centered communication with cancer survivors’ emotional well-being while health self-efficacy mediated the associations of social support and patient-centered communication with cancer survivors’ emotional well-being. It is important for health practitioners to focus on improving social support, self-efficacy for managing health, and cancer-related beliefs in order to enhance the emotional well-being of cancer survivors.