Patient and Caregiver Interest in Internet‐Based Cancer Services

Abstract

Patients with cancer and their caregivers are interested in supplementing in-person services with Internet-based services relating to their cancer treatment. Special efforts need to be made to reach ethnic minorities, the elderly, and those with less education with Internet-based programs.

The role of the Internet in supporting and informing carers of people with cancer: a literature review

“…The studies reported that younger, female carers with a higher education level, higher socioeconomic background and with computer access in the home or at work and having less direct caring responsibilities are more likely to use the Internet for cancer-related information [2,8,30,31,40,44]. Reported barriers to Internet use include no access and not knowing how to use a computer [30,56].…”

“…Basch et al [2] report similarity of Internet use between carer and patient, whilst Monnier et al [40] report similarity between carer and patient with regards to the desire to use the Internet. Both James et al [31] and Pecchioni and Sparks [45] describe carers, more than patients, reporting satisfaction with using the Internet for information.…”

What kind of cancer information do Internet users need?

“…The most needed information depending on the category of the general public and healthcare professionals in our study was for 'prevention & diagnosis' information. However, the information most needed by patients and caregivers was 'treatment information', consisting of the findings of studies in the USA [19] and Netherlands [20]. Yet these are inconsistent with the results from studies in Japan and Italy where the caregivers of newly diagnosed cancer patients had a greater need for 'disease' information than 'treatment' information [2,21].…”

Using health communication best practices to develop a web-based provider–patient communication aid: The CONNECT™ study

“…The Science Panel on Interactive Communication and Health [47,48] suggested the value of interactive health communication and those that use structured psycho-educational approaches can improve knowledge and health behavior skills [49]. Specifically, patients with cancer commonly use the Internet to access disease and treatment-related information [50][51][52][53][54][55][56] and report receiving some benefit of finding health information and support online [57]. Further, there is evidence for the high acceptability of multi-media interactive programs to enhance treatment decision making among prostate cancer patients [58], and for the effectiveness of web-based interventions on behavioral outcomes [59].…”