Health information-seeking behavior among African Americans: Findings from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

With the rise of the Internet, more people in the U.S. have become active seekers of health information than in the past. Americans are using this information to help them make health-related decisions that may ultimately affect their quality of life and standard of health care. In this study, we explored the cancer information-seeking behavior of African Americans (AA) via the National Cancer Institute's 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data. We used the HINTS data to help us profile the type of information AAs were looking for and to describe their information-seeking behavior. Specifically, we looked at HINTS responses from N=481 AA participants and found that 50% described themselves as “active” seekers of health information. Of those who were active seekers of health information, more than half reported that they used the Internet to help them in their searches. We also found that 27% of the participants reported using the Internet to help them find information about a specific type of cancer, with more than two-thirds (70%) of the group indicating that the cancer information they found on the Internet was “useful”. Still, when participants expressed a strong need for additional cancer information, 60% indicated that they would defer to their health care providers, saying that they trusted their provider as a credible source of cancer information. In this session, we will present our findings about AA's cancer information-seeking behavior. We will also discuss the implications of our findings, providing recommendations for cancer communication message design and dissemination.