Looking Beyond the Internet: Examining Socioeconomic Inequalities in Cancer Information Seeking Among Cancer Patients

Abstract

The gap in cancer information seeking between high-socioeconomic status (SES) cancer patients and low-SES cancer patients deserves serious attention considering the importance of information and knowledge in cancer control. We thus explored the association of SES, as measured by education, with cancer patients’ overall cancer information seeking, and with seeking from each source (i.e., the Internet, mass media, medical sources, and non-medical interpersonal sources) and across two topic categories (i.e., treatment, quality of life). We then asked whether the effect of education on treatment information seeking is reduced among those who are particularly motivated to control treatment choices. We conducted a survey with breast, prostate, and colon cancer patients diagnosed in 2005 (N = 2,013), who were randomly drawn from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry in the fall of 2006. We found that education was more strongly associated with Internet use than with the use of other sources regardless of topics. Also, when information was sought from mass media, education had a greater association with treatment information seeking than with quality-of-life information seeking. Preference for active participation in treatment decision making, however, did not moderate the effect of education on treatment information seeking. The implications of these findings for public health research and cancer patient education were discussed.

Health anxiety in the digital age: An exploration of psychological determinants of online health information seeking

“…Existing work on source use, has linked specific source utilization to the demographic make-up of information seekers (Lee, Ramirez, Lewis-Persky, Gray, & Hornik, 2012). The Lin et al (2015) study of health search behaviors found that the role of social locators (e.g., ethnicity) is declining, in relation to psychological factors (e.g., self efficacy); they concluded that this dynamic is consistent with the profile of a ''mature'' Internet innovation, one in which the differences between adopters and non-adopters is leveling (as we might expect with older mass media).…”

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Relative Survival of Rectal Cancer Most Obvious in Stage III

“…Seeking information and consultation for symptoms associated with rectal cancer are related to socioeconomic factors [13,14], and this may contribute to a more disadvantageous stage distribution [15]. The causal relationship of socioeconomic differences in rectal cancer survival may be out of reach for clinicians in their daily practice.…”

Ethnicity, digital divides and uses of the Internet for health information

“…As more expensive technologies are developed, however, the divide seems to widen for newer innovations (Chakraborty & Bosman, 2005;Lee et al, 2012;Vishwanath, Finnegan, Hannan, & Luepker, 1991). Other work underscores the role of cultural factors-casting the digital divide as a function of Internet access-which favors Caucasians over Black and Hispanic populations (e.g., Dupagne & Salwen, 2005;Pew, 2011).…”

“…Although digital divide conceptions define Internet access in terms of race and class disparities (e.g., Ginossar & Nelson, 2010;Jeffres, Neuendorf, & Atkin, 2012;Laz & Berenson, 2013;Lee, Ramirez, Leis, Gray, & Hornik, 2012;Pingree & Hawkins, 1996;Rice & Katz, 2001; van Dijk, 2005van Dijk, , 2006Vigdor & Ladd, 2010;Vishwanath et al, 2006), the concept also encompasses psychological factors determining computer use (e.g., Eastin & LaRose, 2000;Han et al, 2009;Ruppel & Rains, 2012;Whitten, Kreps, & Eastin, 2009). Dupagne and Salwen (2005) emphasize the critical public policy debate driving this issue, one defined in terms of disparities in internet access among different social groups.…”