Information seeking behavior of men with prostate cancer: What they say, what they do

Introduction: There is currently no clinically agreed upon best course of treatment for the most common type of prostate cancer. How men with prostate cancer look for information on treatment is not widely known.

Methods: We used data from the 2003 and 2005 Health Information National Trends Surveys, a nationally representative survey measuring the public's knowledge of, attitudes toward, and behaviors related to cancer information sources. We compared use of the internet for cancer information and trust of the internet as source of cancer information by prostate vs. other cancer vs. no cancer. We modeled the likelihood of using the internet for cancer information based on cancer type, age, race, education, income and trust of the internet.

Results: A smaller proportion of men with prostate cancer used the internet for cancer information (14.7%) compared to men with other cancers (28.8%) or no cancer (21.0%; p< .01). Proportion trusting the internet did not differ by cancer type. Using the internet for cancer information did not differ significantly by cancer type in logistic regression, but Hispanics and men with high school education or less were less likely to use the internet compared to whites and college graduates. Men with incomes less than $25,000 were more likely to use the internet compared to those with incomes over $75,000 (OR=2.21, 95%CI 1.18-4.12). Men who trust the internet “a lot” were more likely to use the internet compared to those who trust it some or none (OR=2.19, 95%CI 1.30-3.72).

Conclusions: Trusting the internet is the most important factor influencing men's use of the internet for cancer information. Men with prostate cancer are not less likely to use the internet, despite a smaller proportion reporting that they do so. Surprisingly, lower income men were more likely to use the internet to find information on cancer.