Studying the Correlation Between Demographics Variables and the Health Information-Seeking Behavior of Patients With Cancer

Abstract

IntroductionInformation is a vital requirement like other human vital needs. One of the information every patient needs is about the health and ways of preventing diseases and information for their treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that there is no significant correlation among demographics variables and the health information-seeking behavior of patients with cancer in Shahid Bahonar Hospital and Javad Al-Aemeh clinic in Kerman during the academic year 2017-2018.MethodsThe research method was descriptive and the data were collected through Lango’s information-seeking behavior questionnaire. To investigate the research hypotheses, independent statistical methods and one-way ANOVA were used.ResultsThe results showed that younger patients seek health information through electronic resources as compared with other patients. Male patients were more actively receiving their health information than females, and female patients were receiving their health information through interpersonal interaction. High-educated and wealthy patients in capital cities received their health information actively on the Internet; while patients with poor-quality living standards received their health information inactively through physicians and interpersonal interaction.ConclusionsAccording to our research results, there was a significant relationship among demographic variables and people with cancer information-seeking behavior.