Web Psychosocial Surveys in Cancer Survivorship-A Methodological Note

The number of Internet surveys is increasing, and there is a need to examine critically their value in psychosocial cancer care research. This study explored the use of an online method of recruiting and surveying people affected by cancer. An online survey was designed to measure the health status...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosocial oncology 2013-09, Vol.31 (5), p.556-564
Main Authors: Santin, Olinda, Mills, Moyra, Treanor, Charlene, McDonald, Grace, Donnelly, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Adult
Cancer
cancer survivors
Caregivers
Female
Females
Health
Health Problems
Health Surveys - methods
Humans
Internet
Male
methods
Neoplasms - psychology
Neoplasms - therapy
Oncology
online survey
Polls & surveys
Reproducibility of Results
Surveys
Survivor
Survivors - psychology
Survivors - statistics & numerical data
Values
web surveys
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The number of Internet surveys is increasing, and there is a need to examine critically their value in psychosocial cancer care research. This study explored the use of an online method of recruiting and surveying people affected by cancer. An online survey was designed to measure the health status and service needs of adult cancer survivors and caregivers. The online survey received 491 page visits; only 5% of visitors (13 survivors and 14 cancer caregivers) completed the online questionnaire. The average age of survivors and caregivers was 43 and 42 years, respectively. The majority of survivor and caregiver online respondents were female (23/27, 85%) and had been affected by cancer between 1 and 3 years previously (16/27, 59%). Our online research did not appear to be an effective method for recruiting and surveying the psychosocial health of cancer survivors. This study identified potential pitfalls and obstacles of online cancer care surveys particularly in relation to the age of cancer survivors, access to the Internet and the need to ensure surveys are easily and immediately accessible. Future Internet surveys should pay particular attention to the need to advertise and improve survey access via targeted and tailored techniques.
ISSN:0734-7332
1540-7586
DOI:10.1080/07347332.2013.822050