Lussiez Alisha D, Burdick Stephanie, Kodali Sindhura, Rubio Gustavo, Mack Jacob A, Lin Jules, Chang Andrew C, Reddy Rishindra M
University of Michigan Medical School, 1301 Catherine, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical Center, 3110 Taubman Center, SPC 5368, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
J Cancer Educ. 2017 Mar;32(1):91-96. doi: 10.1007/s13187-015-0934-9.
With trends toward increasing patient involvement in medical decision-making, decreasing clinic times, and the availability of the Internet, patients and their caregivers are increasingly researching cancer diagnoses online. It is essential for physicians to understand patient Internet usage as it relates to their own health education. Internet usage trends have been studied in various areas, but not in thoracic diseases. This prospective cohort study surveyed 337 thoracic surgery patients and their caregivers with both cancer and non-cancer diagnoses to examine their Internet usage trends. Cancer subjects were more likely to research their condition online if they were younger, had a higher income, had a higher education level, and were currently employed. Only age and income level were predictive for non-cancer subjects. Separately, cancer subjects were more likely to trust information found on the Internet if they had a higher education. Subjects were most likely to conduct research on a hospital website than other websites. These data will be helpful to thoracic surgeons who want to appropriately educate patients and their caregivers and direct them to reliable Internet sources. These data also illustrate the importance of developing trustworthy hospital websites with disease-specific information.
随着患者在医疗决策中参与度的提高、门诊时间的减少以及互联网的普及，患者及其护理人员越来越多地在网上研究癌症诊断。医生了解患者与自身健康教育相关的互联网使用情况至关重要。互联网使用趋势已在各个领域进行了研究，但尚未涉及胸科疾病。这项前瞻性队列研究调查了337名胸外科患者及其护理人员，他们既有癌症诊断也有非癌症诊断，以研究他们的互联网使用趋势。癌症患者如果年龄较小、收入较高、教育水平较高且目前有工作，就更有可能在网上研究自己的病情。对于非癌症患者，只有年龄和收入水平具有预测性。另外，癌症患者如果教育水平较高，就更有可能信任在互联网上找到的信息。受试者最有可能在医院网站而不是其他网站上进行研究。这些数据将有助于胸外科医生对患者及其护理人员进行适当的教育，并引导他们获取可靠的互联网资源。这些数据还说明了开发包含特定疾病信息的可信医院网站的重要性。
