title: Cancer information scanning and seeking in the general population.
abstract: The amount of cancer-related information available in the media and other sources continues to increase each year. We wondered how people make use of such content in making specific health decisions. We studied both the information they actively seek ("seeking") and that which they encounter in a less purposive way ("scanning") through a nationally representative survey of adults aged 40-70 years (n = 2,489) focused on information use around three prevention behaviors (dieting, fruit and vegetable consumption, and exercising) and three screening test behaviors (prostate-specific antigen, colonoscopy, mammogram). Overall, respondents reported a great deal of scanning and somewhat less seeking (on average 62% versus 28% for each behavior), and they used a range of sources including mass media, interpersonal conversations, and the Internet, alongside physicians. Seeking was predicted by female gender, age of 55-64 vs. 40-44, higher education, Black race and Hispanic ethnicity, and being married. Scanning was predicted by older age, female gender, and education. Respondents were fairly consistent in their place on a typology of scanning and seeking across behaviors. Seeking was associated with all six behaviors, and scanning was associated with three of six behaviors.
authors.affiliation: RTI International, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hornik
authors.forename: Anca
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romantan
authors.forename: J Sanford
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DeMichele
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fishbein
authors.forename: Stacy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Shawnika
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hull
authors.forename: Annice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Rebekah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagler
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niederdeppe
authors.forename: A Susana
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith-McLallen
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D003657:Decision Making; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D007255:Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States