A survey of Internet utilization among patients with cancer

Introduction Recently published articles have established that a substantial number of cancer patients utilize the Internet to gather information about their respective diagnoses. The challenges for medical providers include understanding the prevalence and characteristics of patients using the Inte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Supportive care in cancer 2011-08, Vol.19 (8), p.1183-1190
Main Authors: Castleton, Kimra, Fong, Thomas, Wang-Gillam, Andrea, Waqar, Muhammad A., Jeffe, Donna B., Kehlenbrink, Lisa, Gao, Feng, Govindan, Ramaswamy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cancer
Cancer patients
Chi-Square Distribution
Female
Health Education
Health Surveys
Humans
Information Dissemination
Internet
Internet - statistics & numerical data
Internet - utilization
Male
Medical colleges
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - psychology
Nursing
Nursing Research
Oncology
Original Article
Pain Medicine
Patient education
Patient Satisfaction
Polls & surveys
Rehabilitation Medicine
Self-Assessment
Statistics as Topic
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Toy industry
Young Adult
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Summary:Introduction Recently published articles have established that a substantial number of cancer patients utilize the Internet to gather information about their respective diagnoses. The challenges for medical providers include understanding the prevalence and characteristics of patients using the Internet, reasons for Internet use, and the effectiveness of currently available websites in providing useful health-related information to patients. Material and methods Adults with cancer were asked to complete a self-administered, anonymous, 21-item questionnaire upon registration at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University School of Medicine. Results There were 500 respondents (mean age 58 years (range 18–90), 83% Caucasian and 15% African-American). Three hundred ninety-eight participants (80%) reported access to the Internet, and 315 (63%) reported searching for information about cancer on the Internet. Patients accessing the Internet for cancer information were younger than those who did not (median age 56 vs. 63 years; p  
ISSN:0941-4355
1433-7339
DOI:10.1007/s00520-010-0935-5