title: Information seeking and satisfaction with physician-patient communication among prostate cancer survivors.
abstract: Relatively little is known about prostate cancer patients' information seeking after diagnosis, how they use such information in making a treatment decision, or what role information plays in adjusting to quality-of-life issues posttreatment. This research sought to explore some of these issues by examining prostate cancer patients' information seeking and its relationship to assessments of feeling informed and satisfied with physician-patient communication about prostate cancer. Respondents felt reasonably informed about prostate cancer, although over one third of them reported being less then informed. Similarly, many respondents were generally satisfied with their communication with physicians, but nearly 40% of them reported being less than satisfied. However, there was no relationship between respondents' information seeking about prostate cancer and their assessments of being informed or satisfied with physician-patient communication. These and other results are discussed with respect to future research on prostate cancer patients' information needs and uses of such information.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. cegala.1@osu.edu
authors.forename: Donald J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cegala
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Bahnson
authors.forename: Steven K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Clinton
authors.forename: Prabu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: David
authors.forename: Michael Chi
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: J Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Monk
authors.forename: Subir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nag
authors.forename: Kamal S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Pohar
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*