Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Health Commun. 2009 Dec;24(8):764-72. doi: 10.1080/10410230903242242.
Cancer prevention recommendations reaching the public today are often ambiguous-that is, of uncertain reliability, credibility, or adequacy-yet little is known about the factors that influence public perceptions of this ambiguity. We used data from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey, conducted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, to explore how sociodemographic characteristics and self-reported mass media exposures relate to perceptions of ambiguity regarding recommendations for the prevention of colon, skin, and lung cancer. Various sociodemographic characteristics (age, education, race) and mass media exposures (television, radio, Internet, health news) were found to be associated with perceived ambiguity about cancer prevention recommendations, and many of these associations varied by cancer type. These findings have important implications for future health communication research and practice.
如今向公众发布的癌症预防建议往往不够明确——也就是说,其可靠性、可信度或充分性不确定——但人们对影响公众对这种不明确性看法的因素知之甚少。我们使用了美国国家癌症研究所进行的 2005 年国家健康信息趋势调查的数据,来探讨社会人口统计学特征和自我报告的大众媒体接触情况与对结肠癌、皮肤癌和肺癌预防建议的不明确性看法之间的关系。各种社会人口统计学特征(年龄、教育程度、种族)和大众媒体接触情况(电视、广播、互联网、健康新闻)与对癌症预防建议的不明确性看法有关,而且这些关联在不同癌症类型中也有所不同。这些发现对未来的健康传播研究和实践具有重要意义。