Information processing and negative affect: evidence from the 2003 Health Information National Trends Survey.
OBJECTIVE
Health communication can help reduce the cancer burden by increasing processing of information about health interventions. Negative affect is associated with information processing and may be a barrier to successful health communication.


METHODS
We examined associations between negative affect and information processing at the population level. Symptoms of depression (6 items) and cancer worry (1 item) operationalized negative affect; attention to health information (5 items) and cancer information-seeking experiences (6 items) operationalized information processing.


RESULTS
Higher cancer worry was associated with more attention to health information (p<.01) and worse cancer information-seeking experiences (p<.05). More symptoms of depression were associated with worse information-seeking experiences (p<.01), but not with attention.


CONCLUSIONS
We found population-level evidence that increased cancer worry is associated with more attention to health information, and increased cancer worry and symptoms of depression are associated with worse cancer information-seeking experiences. Results suggest that affect plays a role in health information processing, and decreasing negative affect associated with cancer communication may improve experiences seeking cancer information.
Beckjord
Ellen Burke
EB
Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA. ebeckjor@rand.org
Finney Rutten
Lila J
LJ
Arora
Neeraj K
NK
Moser
Richard P
RP
Hesse
Bradford W
BW
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D003142:Communication; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*