Abstract
Effective communication in health information plays an important role in health promotion and cancer prevention. Cancer-related information acquisition can happen via active and purposeful seeking, but may also happen less purposely via the routine use of media and interactions with other people (called scanning). We examined seeking and scanning behaviors regarding cancer prevention in older Chinese adults, identified commonly used sources of information of such behaviors, and examined their associations with fatalistic beliefs and cancer fear. A convenience sample of 224 community-dwelling adults aged ≥60 were recruited between May and July in 2013 in Hong Kong. Results suggested that cancer information scanning (79.5%) was more common than information seeking (30.4%) among our participants. Health professional was the most popular source for both scanning (78.7%) and seeking (58.8%) behaviors regarding cancer information. Fatalistic beliefs was significantly and negatively associated with seeking behaviors (OR = 0.50) but not scanning behaviors, and cancer fear showed no relationship with either behavior. This study shows that the cancer information seeking and scanning behaviors were still suboptimal in this age group and adds to the knowledge regarding the associations between fatalistic beliefs and fear with cancer information seeking and scanning behaviors among older Chinese adults.
Highlights
Cancer burden continues to rise globally, especially in the elderly as incidence and mortality rates increase with age for most cancers [1]
This study shows that the cancer information seeking and scanning behaviors were still suboptimal in this age group and adds to the knowledge regarding the associations between fatalistic beliefs and fear with cancer information seeking and scanning behaviors among older Chinese adults
The participants had a mean level of fatalism close to the middle point, while a mean level of cancer fear on the lower side (Table 1)
Summary
Cancer burden continues to rise globally, especially in the elderly as incidence and mortality rates increase with age for most cancers [1]. In China, it was estimated that the incidence rates of lung, colorectal, and prostate cancers will continue to rise even after adjusting for the change in the age structure in urban regions [3]. Reports have demonstrated that older people are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer via an emergency hospital visit rather than recognizing symptoms and actively seeking medical support at an early stage [4]. The increasing number of cancer patients and survivors with long lifespan and the high cost of cancer treatments have shifted the cancer care from the hospital to the community, leading to an unprecedented dependence on carers’ support for high-quality care
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