The Internet and prostate cancer patients: searching for and finding information.
OBJECTIVE
To define the characteristics of prostate cancer patients who use the Internet.


METHODS
In October 2002, 511 prostate cancer patients from Stockholm-Gotland County completed a postal questionnaire consisting of 146 questions regarding use of the Internet, demographic factors, level of information about the disease and its treatment, quality of life and trade-off possibilities.


RESULTS
The response rate was 86.5% (n=511) and the mean age of the respondents was 71 years. A total of 210 men (41.1%) had access to the Internet. Eighty-two men (16.4%) had looked for information on prostate cancer, either by themselves or with the aid of others. Among men aged 50-60 years, 39% were Internet users, compared to 8% among men aged 75-80 years; the figures for university graduates versus those who had only attended elementary school were 33% and 3%, respectively. Fifty of the 82 men (61%) who searched for information regarded themselves as being satisfactorily informed by online information.


CONCLUSIONS
Of the men in this cohort, 16% searched the Internet for information regarding their prostate cancer. Young and well-educated men utilized the Internet more frequently than others, but they did not find information more often than older and less well-educated men. It is possible that the Internet promotes social inequality in obtaining healthcare in favor of well-educated, highly paid individuals.
Buntrock
Stefan
S
Division of Clinical Cancer Epidemiology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hopfgarten
Thomas
T
Adolfsson
Jan
J
Onelöv
Erik
E
Steineck
Gunnar
G
D022126:Access to Information; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D003710:Demography; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D007256:Information Systems; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*