Information seeking and source selection among ePatients with cancer: Findings from the HINTS 2005

Abstract

AbstractThis study is a secondary analysis of the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) of 5,586 randomly chosen Americans, conducted by the National Cancer Institute. The current study focuses on a subset of this dataset and includes the responses of ePatients (n=252) – people with history of cancer researching cancer topics from the Internet‐, and other cancer information seekers (n=1,740). A series of t‐tests and chi‐square tests was conducted to obtain insight into the socio‐demographic, communication, and information‐seeking characteristics the two groups possess. Compared to other cancer information seekers, ePatients were older; poorly employed or retired; more likely to have health coverage (insurance or Medicare, etc.); non‐immigrant; more likely to pay higher attention to media coverage of health news; more likely to e‐mail to doctors; more likely to trust information from the Internet; less likely to trust information from family/friends or radio; and more likely to have higher search expertise. More than half of the ePatients used the Internet for their primary information source, but growing number of the ePatients preferred doctors as the most preferred information source. The findings reveal five patterns in information and communication behaviors of ePatients. Implications from HINTS for health information providers were suggested.