Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110367

Shoba Ramanadhan, MPH, Dept. of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 44 Binney St. SM 268, Boston, MA 02115, 617.512.7842, sramanad@hsph.harvard.edu and K. Viswanath, PhD, Center for Community-Based Research, Harvard School of Public Health/Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, SM 251, Boston, MA 02115.

It is commonly assumed that persons diagnosed with cancer actively seek information from different sources including their health care providers, family members and friends. Yet, there is a substantial group (about 30%) that reports that they do not seek cancer information despite their history of cancer. This study describes the demographic and behavioral profiles of the “Nonseekers” of cancer information among those with a history of cancer.

Data come from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), a nationally representative survey of 6,369 American adults conducted by the National Cancer Institute. Of those with a history of cancer (n=745), persons who reported that they had not looked for cancer information for themselves nor received information from a non-health care provider were categorized as Nonseekers; the others were categorized as Seekers.

Nonseekers tend to be older and of lower Socioeconomic Status (SES) than the rest of the sample. The group also contains more minorities, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics. This group pays less attention to mass media health information and is less likely to report recent exercise than Seekers. Lastly, in terms of risk perception, Nonseekers were more likely to agree with the statement that there isn't much one can do to lower the risk of cancer.

Nonseekers are of great interest because they are the least proactive and may be the most difficult to reach via mass media. Interventions targeting these groups can be useful to lessen current disparities in access to and use of health information.

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