Communication Surveillance for Cancer Prevention and Control

NCI's Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) was created to monitor changes in the field of health communication. The survey provides nationally-representative data on changing patterns, needs, and information opportunities in health; identifies changing communications trends; assesses cancer information access and usage; provides information about health and cancer-related perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge; and offers a tool for testing new theories in health communication. NCI fielded the first HINTS in 2002 and 2003, surveying 6,369 Americans. Subsequent surveys followed in 2005 and 2008, and plans for a fourth fielding are underway. This session will demonstrate how HINTS can be used by both data users and results users to do scientific research or cancer control planning and outreach efforts, and will highlight online resources available to the HINTS community. Highlights will include trends in top-line responses to survey questions in several areas of cancer communication, and an introduction to HINTS Briefs, which provide a snapshot of data-driven research findings on a particular topic. Presenters will demonstrate online charts and graphs in different formats, and will preview new Web site functionality. In addition, attendees will learn how the HINTS program is soliciting ideas for item development by demonstrating an online tool developed for the next iteration of the survey. Cancer communication surveillance is essential to ensuring equity in health information access, usage, and comprehension. HINTS provides population estimates derived from a nationally-representative probability sample, and NCI provides a plethora of resources to make the data usable and accessible to researchers and practitioners alike.