Lecturer, PaCT Lab, School of Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKResearch Assistant Professor, Centre for Health Behaviours Research, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR.
Health Expect. 2014 Apr;17(2):244-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2011.00745.x. Epub 2012 Feb 2.
Experiential websites such as message forums and blogs allow Prostate Cancer (PCa) patients to communicate their health decisions to peers. The issues surrounding this form of indirect involvement in public health are little understood.
This paper explores the types of decision-making processes that people are exposed to on PCa online message boards. The kinds of treatment choices patients are making and the reports of their decision-making processes to peers through an online environment are examined in the context of the Heuristic Systematic Model.
Messages about treatment decision making were collected from four PCa websites. In total, 137 messages were selected from blogs and online forums and their decision-making processes coded.
Men looking online for information about treatment options for PCa are exposed to a range of decision-making processes. Just under half (49.6%) of the messages reported non-systematic decision processes, with deferral to the doctor and proof of cancer removal being the most common. For systematic processing (36.5%), messages most commonly considered treatment outcomes and side-effects. Processes did not vary between the blogs and online forums.
Compared to previous studies far fewer messages reported non-systematic decision processes and only a small number of messages reflected lay beliefs or misbeliefs about PCa treatment. Implications for men and their clinicians of seeking health information online are discussed.
体验式网站，如留言板和博客，让前列腺癌（PCa）患者能够与同行交流他们的健康决策。这种间接参与公共卫生的形式所涉及的问题还不太清楚。
本文探讨了人们在 PCa 在线留言板上接触到的决策过程类型。在启发式系统模型的背景下，研究了患者通过在线环境向同行报告他们的决策过程以及他们正在做出的治疗选择。
从四个 PCa 网站上收集了关于治疗决策的信息。总共从博客和在线论坛中选择了 137 条消息，并对其决策过程进行了编码。
在网上寻找 PCa 治疗选择信息的男性会接触到一系列的决策过程。近一半（49.6%）的消息报告了非系统的决策过程，其中最常见的是向医生咨询和证明癌症已被切除。对于系统处理（36.5%），消息最常考虑的是治疗结果和副作用。博客和在线论坛之间的处理过程没有差异。
与之前的研究相比，报告非系统决策过程的消息要少得多，只有少数消息反映了对 PCa 治疗的错误或错误信念。讨论了男性及其临床医生在线寻求健康信息的影响。
