Niederdeppe Jeff, Frosch Dominick L, Hornik Robert C
School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53726-2397, USA.
J Health Commun. 2008 Mar;13(2):181-99. doi: 10.1080/10810730701854110.
The shift toward viewing patients as active consumers of health information raises questions about whether individuals respond to health news by seeking additional information. This study examines the relationship between cancer news coverage and information seeking using a national survey of adults aged 18 years and older. A Lexis-Nexis database search term was used to identify Associated Press (AP) news articles about cancer released between October 21, 2002, and April 13, 2003. We merged these data to the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a telephone survey of 6,369 adults, by date of interview. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between cancer news coverage and information seeking. Overall, we observed a marginally significant positive relationship between cancer news coverage and information seeking (p < 0.07). Interaction terms revealed that the relationship was apparent only among respondents who paid close attention to health news (p < 0.01) and among those with a family history of cancer (p < 0.05). Results suggest that a notable segment of the population actively responds to periods of elevated cancer news coverage by seeking additional information, but they raise concerns about the potential for widened gaps in cancer knowledge and behavior between large segments of the population in the future.
将患者视为健康信息的积极消费者这种转变引发了一些问题，即个人是否会通过寻求更多信息来回应健康新闻。本研究通过对18岁及以上成年人进行全国性调查，考察了癌症新闻报道与信息寻求之间的关系。使用Lexis - Nexis数据库搜索词来识别2002年10月21日至2003年4月13日期间美联社发布的有关癌症的新闻文章。我们按采访日期将这些数据与健康信息全国趋势调查（HINTS）合并，该调查是对6369名成年人进行的电话调查。逻辑回归模型评估了癌症新闻报道与信息寻求之间的关系。总体而言，我们观察到癌症新闻报道与信息寻求之间存在微弱的显著正相关关系（p < 0.07）。交互项显示，这种关系仅在密切关注健康新闻的受访者中明显（p < 0.01）以及在有癌症家族史的受访者中明显（p < 0.05）。结果表明，相当一部分人群会通过寻求更多信息来积极回应癌症新闻报道增加的时期，但这也引发了对未来不同人群之间癌症知识和行为差距可能扩大的担忧。
