Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

The Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch is developing, with input from a national group of scientific consultants, a Health Information National Trends Survey to examine the American public's access to and use of cancer information. The project will survey a representative national sample of the American public, with an over-sampling of key under-served minority populations.

HINTS will establish important baseline data about cancer communication practices and preferences across the USA. The surveillance project also intends to:

• clarify current understanding of the public's perceived needs for relevant cancer information, their current usage of cancer information, and the impact of that information on their lives

• provide NCI with a thorough assessment of the American public's current access and use of information about cancer, cancer care, and cancer prevention

• identify the particular cancer information topics the American public is most concerned about and specify important directions necessary for effective national dissemination of cancer information

• collect data about public perceptions concerning cancer risks as related to particular hazards, such as smoking, and perceptions about specific risks for particular cancers, such as breast cancer

• identify public preferences for specific cancer information channels and sources, as well as the relationships between cancer information access and cancer-related health beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, such as participation in cancer screening

• identify the information needs of diverse key audiences for cancer communication and help target cancer information dissemination efforts

• yield insights into the key determinants of public information usage about cancer as well as how knowledge, risk perceptions and other relevant characteristics affect use of cancer communications and how these are related to health behaviors

• assess public communication channel preferences, the sources for cancer information that different groups of Americans judge to be most credible and the messages these groups find to be most compelling