Bridget Kelly

Cancer Information Scanning and Seeking Behavior is Associated with Knowledge, Lifestyle Choices, and Screening

Previous research on cancer information focused on active seeking, neglecting information gathered through routine media use or conversation (“scanning”). It is hypothesized that both scanning and active seeking influence knowledge, prevention, and screening decisions. This study uses Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS, 2003) data to describe cancer-related scanning and seeking behavior (SSB) and assess its relationship with knowledge, lifestyle behavior, and screening. Scanning was operationalized as the amount of attention paid to health topics, and seeking was defined as looking for cancer information in the past year. The resulting typology included 41% low-scan/no-seekers; 30% high-scan/no-seekers; 10% low-scan/seekers, and 19% high-scan/seekers. Both scanning and seeking were significantly associated with knowledge about cancer (B=.36; B=.34) and lifestyle choices that may prevent cancer (B=.15; B=.16) in multivariate analyses. Both scanning and seeking were associated with colonoscopy (OR = 1.38, for scanning and OR=1.44, for seeking) and with prostate cancer screening (OR=4.53, scanning; OR=10.01, seeking). Scanning was significantly associated with recent mammography (OR=1.46), but seeking was not. Individuals who scan or seek cancer information are those who acquire knowledge, adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors, and get screened for cancer. Causal claims about these associations await further research.

Examining the dimensions of cancer-related information seeking and scanning behavior.

Recent decades have witnessed a growing emphasis on patients as active consumers of health information. The literature about cancer-related information focuses on active and purposeful information seeking, but a great deal of exposure to cancer-relevant information may happen less purposively (termed information scanning). This article presents results from an in-depth interview study that examined information seeking and scanning behavior in the context of cancer prevention and screening decisions among a diverse sample of people living in a major metropolitan area. Results suggest that information scanning is quite common, particularly for information related to screening tests. Information seeking is rarer and occurs primarily among those who also are information scanners. Respondents report using a greater variety of sources for information scanning than for information seeking, but participants were much more likely to report that their decisions were influenced by information received through seeking than through scanning. These findings shed new light on how individuals navigate the media environment and suggest future research should examine predictors and effects of less purposeful efforts to obtain cancer-related information.

Food advertising in the age of obesity: Content analysis of food advertising on general market and African American television

OBJECTIVE To document the types of foods advertised and weight-related nutritional claims made during advertisements appearing on general market and African American television programming. DESIGN Content analysis of 553 food advertisements appearing during 101.5 prime-time television hours. OUTCOME MEASURES Advertisements were classified according to general category (fast-food restaurant, sit-down restaurant, packaged food), specific food type, and the presence of a weight-related nutritional claim. ANALYSIS The type of foods advertised and nutritional claims made on general market and African American programs were compared using t and chi-squared tests. RESULTS More food advertisements appeared during African American programs than general market programs. These advertisements were more likely to be for fast food, candy, soda, or meat and less likely to be for cereals, grains and pasta, fruits and vegetables, dessert, or alcohol. Of all of the food advertisements, 14.9% made a weight-related nutritional claim. More claims related to fat content appeared during African American programming, whereas more light and lean claims appeared in general market advertisements. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Practitioners and policy makers should be aware of the prevalence of food advertisements and their potential impact on knowledge and behavior and should consider working more closely with food manufacturers to encourage the creation and promotion of weight-friendly foods. Meanwhile, nutrition educators can help by teaching consumers critical thinking skills as may relate to food advertisements.

Cancer Information Scanning and Seeking in the General Population

The amount of cancer-related information available in the media and other sources continues to increase each year. We wondered how people make use of such content in making specific health decisions. We studied both the information they actively seek (“seeking”) and that which they encounter in a less purposive way (“scanning”) through a nationally representative survey of adults aged 40–70 years (n = 2,489) focused on information use around three prevention behaviors (dieting, fruit and vegetable consumption, and exercising) and three screening test behaviors (prostate-specific antigen, colonoscopy, mammogram). Overall, respondents reported a great deal of scanning and somewhat less seeking (on average 62% versus 28% for each behavior), and they used a range of sources including mass media, interpersonal conversations, and the Internet, alongside physicians. Seeking was predicted by female gender, age of 55–64 vs. 40–44, higher education, Black race and Hispanic ethnicity, and being married. Scanning was predicted by older age, female gender, and education. Respondents were fairly consistent in their place on a typology of scanning and seeking across behaviors. Seeking was associated with all six behaviors, and scanning was associated with three of six behaviors.

The HPV vaccine and the media: How has the topic been covered and what are the effects on knowledge about the virus and cervical cancer?

OBJECTIVE In June 2006, the first vaccine for HPV was approved by the FDA and media coverage about the topic increased significantly. This study sought to explore the nature of the coverage and whether knowledge about HPV was affected by it. METHODS A content analysis, including 321 news stories from major newspapers, the AP wire and television news networks was conducted. A monthly RDD-recruited Internet survey with a national sample (n=3323) was used to assess changes in population knowledge. RESULTS Twenty-three percent of stories did not mention the sexually transmitted nature of the disease and 80% left out information about the need for continued cervical cancer screening after vaccination. Exposure to health-related media content was significantly associated with knowledge about HPV, even controlling for baseline knowledge (OR=1.62, 95% CI=1.12-2.35). CONCLUSIONS Changes in the volume of coverage over time were associated with knowledge about HPV, but the content analysis reveals that many of the stories were missing important information. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Clinicians must consider the potential media source patients are using for HPV-related information in order to correct inaccurate or incomplete information that could affect health behavior.

Response rates to a mailed survey of a representative sample of cancer patients randomly drawn from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry: a randomized trial of incentive and length effects

BackgroundIn recent years, response rates to telephone surveys have declined. Online surveys may miss many older and poorer adults. Mailed surveys may have promise in securing higher response rates.MethodsIn a pilot study, 1200 breast, prostate and colon patients, randomly selected from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, were sent surveys in the mail. Incentive amount (

Validating Measures of Scanned Information Exposure in the Context of Cancer Prevention and Screening Behaviors

3 vs.

Information seeking from media and family/friends increases the likelihood of engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors

5) and length of the survey (10 pages vs. 16 pages) were randomly assigned.ResultsOverall, there was a high response rate (AAPOR RR4 = 64%). Neither the amount of the incentive, nor the length of the survey affected the response rate significantly. Colon cancer surveys were returned at a significantly lower rate (RR4 = 54%), than breast or prostate surveys (RR4 = 71%, and RR4 = 67%, respectively; p < .001 for both comparisons). There were no significant interactions among cancer type, length of survey and incentive amount in their effects on response likelihood.ConclusionMailed surveys may provide a suitable alternative option for survey-based research with cancer patients.

How do cancer patients navigate the public information environment? Understanding patterns and motivations for movement among information sources.

Individuals may obtain health information, particularly from the mass media, without engaging in purposeful information searches (called scanning). This study used the Seeking and Scanning Behavior Survey of the General Population (SSBG), a nationally representative survey of adults aged 40–70 years (n = 2,489), to validate measures of scanned information exposure about cancer prevention and screening behaviors. Scanned exposure measures concerning specific behaviors (exercise; fruit and vegetable consumption; dieting; and mammogram, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) text, and colonoscopy screening) have good face validity and are convergent across behaviors (mean correlation across six preventive behaviors = 0.50, sd = 0.09). These measures can be discriminated from measures of general media exposure (mean r = 0.23, sd = 0.02) and seeking exposure for the same behaviors (mean r = 0.25, sd = 0.06). Scanned information exposure was associated with weekly volume of newspaper coverage for two of six behaviors, providing additional evidence of nomological validity. Scanned information exposure at the first round of measurement was associated with identical exposure 1 year later (mean r = .41, sd = .04). Scanned exposure measures also were significantly associated with five of the six preventive behaviors. These results provide evidence that scanned information exposure measures are valid indicators of the construct. Researchers might consider their use to capture scanned media influence on cognitions and behaviors.

Effects of Scanning (Routine Health Information Exposure) on Cancer Screening and Prevention Behaviors in the General Population

The amount of cancer-related information available to the general population continues to grow; yet, its effects are unclear. This study extends previous cross-sectional research establishing that cancer information seeking across a variety of sources is extensive and positively associated with engaging in health-related behaviors. The authors studied how active information seeking about cancer prevention influenced three healthy lifestyle behaviors using a 2-round nationally representative sample of adults ages 40–70 years (n = 1,795), using propensity scoring to control for potential confounders including baseline behavior. The adjusted odds of dieting at follow-up were 1.51 (95% CI: 1.05, 2.19) times higher for those who reported baseline seeking from media and interpersonal sources relative to nonseekers. Baseline seekers ate 0.59 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.91) more fruits and vegetable servings per day and exercised 0.36 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.60) more days per week at 1-year follow-up compared with nonseekers. The effects of seeking from media and friends/family on eating fruits and vegetables and exercising were independent of seeking from physicians. The authors offer several explanations for why information seeking predicts healthy lifestyle behaviors: information obtained motivates these behaviors; information sought teaches specific techniques; and the act of information seeking may reinforce a psychological commitment to dieting, eating fruits and vegetables, and exercising.