African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are disproportionately affected by cancer, yet underrepresented in cancer clinical trials. Because of this, it is important to understand how attitudes and beliefs about clinical trials vary by ethnicity. A national, random sample of 860 adults was given an online survey about attitudes toward clinical trials. We examined willingness to participate in clinical trials, attitudes toward clinical trials, trust in doctors, attitudes toward alternative and complementary medicine, and preferred information channels. Results indicate that African-American and Hispanic-American participants have more negative attitudes about clinical trials, more distrust toward doctors, more interest in complementary and alternative medicine, and less willingness to participate in clinical trials than white/non-Hispanics, although specific factors affecting willingness to participate vary. The channels people turn to for information on clinical trials also varied by ethnicity. These results help explain the ethnic disparities in cancer clinical trial enrollment by highlighting some potential underlying causes and drawing attention to areas of importance to these groups.

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This study aims to (a) examine the roles of knowledge, distrust in medical professionals, information sources, and 2 dimensions of religiosity (i.e., religious activity and religious belief) in influencing willingness to participate (WTP) in cancer clinical trials and to (b) compare the results for Caucasians and African Americans in order to inform future recruitment. An online survey was fielded via a Knowledge Networks panel with a nationally representative sample including 478 Caucasians and 173 African Americans. The results showed that distrust in medical professionals was a strong barrier to WTP for both ethnic groups, whereas factual knowledge about trial procedures was not associated with WTP for either ethnic group. Seeking trial information from doctors was positively associated with WTP for Caucasians; seeking trial information from hospitals was positively associated with WTP for African Americans. More interestingly, levels of religious activity negatively predicted WTP for Caucasians but positively predicted WTP for African Americans. Self-reported religious belief was not associated with WTP for either ethnic group. In sum, although distrust is a common barrier to WTP, the influence of preferred information sources and religious activity on WTP varies as a function of ethnicity.

One of the most important literacy skills in today's information society is the ability to determine the credibility of online information. Users sort through a staggering number of websites while discerning which will provide satisfactory information. In this study, 70 college students assessed the credibility of health websites with a low and high design quality in either low or high credibility groups. The study's purpose was to understand if students relied more on textual or visual cues in determining credibility and to understand if this affected their recall of those cues later. The results indicate that when viewing a high credibility website, high design quality will bolster the credibility perception, but design quality will not compensate for a low credibility website. The recall test also indicated that credibility does impact the participants' recall of visual and textual cues. Implications are discussed in light of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. [ARTICLE]Pariera: Information Literacy on the Web: How College Students Use Visual