Chae Jiyoung
a Department of Communications and New Media , National University of Singapore , Singapore.
J Health Commun. 2016 Jul;21(7):837-44. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2016.1177144. Epub 2016 Jun 23.
Although cancer information avoidance (CIA) is detrimental to public health, predictors of CIA have not been fully investigated. Based on uncertainty management theory, this study viewed CIA as a response to uncertainty related to the distress associated with cancer information and illustrated the psychological process leading to CIA. Given the current information context, it was hypothesized that cancer information overload (CIO), accompanied by confusion and stress about cancer information, causes CIA. As trait anxiety is a strong predictor of CIO, it was also hypothesized that trait anxiety has an indirect effect on CIA through CIO. Study 1 tested this relationship in a U.S. sample (N = 384); the results showed that CIO was positively associated with CIA and that trait anxiety indirectly influenced CIA through CIO. Whereas Study 1 tested the relationship with cross-sectional data in the general cancer context, Study 2 replicated Study 1 with 3-wave longitudinal data in the context of a specific cancer (i.e., stomach cancer) in South Korea (N = 1,130 at Wave 1, 813 at Wave 2, and 582 at Wave 3). Trait anxiety at Wave 1 predicted CIO at Wave 2, which in turn increased CIA at Wave 3, suggesting that some people are inherently inclined to avoid cancer information due to their trait anxiety, which results in confusion about cancer information.
尽管癌症信息回避（CIA）对公众健康有害，但对CIA的预测因素尚未进行充分研究。基于不确定性管理理论，本研究将CIA视为对与癌症信息相关的痛苦所带来的不确定性的一种反应，并阐述了导致CIA的心理过程。鉴于当前的信息环境，研究假设癌症信息过载（CIO），伴随着对癌症信息的困惑和压力，会导致CIA。由于特质焦虑是CIO的一个强有力的预测因素，研究还假设特质焦虑通过CIO对CIA有间接影响。研究1在美国样本（N = 384）中测试了这种关系；结果表明，CIO与CIA呈正相关，特质焦虑通过CIO间接影响CIA。研究1在一般癌症背景下用横断面数据测试了这种关系，而研究2在韩国特定癌症（即胃癌）背景下用三波纵向数据（第1波N = 1130，第2波813，第3波582）重复了研究1。第1波的特质焦虑预测了第2波的CIO，而第2波的CIO又增加了第3波的CIA，这表明一些人由于其特质焦虑天生倾向于回避癌症信息，这导致了对癌症信息的困惑。
