Chua Gek Phin, Tan Hiang Khoon, Gandhi Mihir
Patient and Family Education Department, National Cancer Centre Singapore, 11 Hospital Drive, Singapore 169610, Singapore.
Division of Community Outreach and Philanthropy, National Cancer Centre Singapore, 11 Hospital Drive, Singapore 169610, Singapore.
Ecancermedicalscience. 2018 Oct 31;12:880. doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2018.880. eCollection 2018.
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Internet usage among cancer patients in seeking health-related information and the type of information sought. Sources of information received from, preferences for information sources and the perceived usefulness of information from these sources were also examined in this study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate the information needs of patients undergoing cancer treatment. The questionnaire also evaluated the current source and preferred source of information as well as their online information seeking behaviours. A total of 411 patients with cancer were recruited from an ambulatory cancer centre. The patients' physicians and healthcare specialists comprised a large majority of the patients' information sources; they were also the most preferred source of information. 59.1% of the respondents used the Internet to search for cancer-related information, namely diagnosis and treatment options, side effects of treatment and complementary and alternative therapy; demonstrating the importance of the above information. Physicians (60.3%) and healthcare specialists (26.5%) were the largest and most preferred sources of information for cancer patients in our study. It was not uncommon for cancer patients to use the Internet to search for additional information demonstrating the need to integrate this tool more effectively for knowledge transfer for those patients who want it. It is important for healthcare professionals to help cancer patients by directing them to sources of quality information (including websites). In addition, the provision of guidelines on how to evaluate health information on the Internet would be helpful to cancer patients.
本研究的目的是调查癌症患者在寻求健康相关信息时互联网使用的普及率以及所寻求信息的类型。本研究还考察了从哪些信息来源获取信息、对信息来源的偏好以及这些来源信息的感知有用性。采用自填式问卷来评估接受癌症治疗患者的信息需求。该问卷还评估了当前的信息来源和偏好的信息来源以及他们的在线信息搜索行为。从一个门诊癌症中心招募了总共411名癌症患者。患者的医生和医疗保健专家构成了患者信息来源的大部分；他们也是最受欢迎的信息来源。59.1%的受访者使用互联网搜索癌症相关信息，即诊断和治疗选择、治疗副作用以及补充和替代疗法；这表明了上述信息的重要性。在我们的研究中，医生（60.3%）和医疗保健专家（26.5%）是癌症患者最大且最受欢迎的信息来源。癌症患者使用互联网搜索额外信息并不罕见，这表明有必要更有效地整合这个工具，以便为那些需要的患者进行知识传递。医疗保健专业人员通过引导癌症患者获取优质信息来源（包括网站）来帮助他们非常重要。此外，提供关于如何评估互联网上健康信息的指南对癌症患者会有帮助。
