Behavior
Association of Cancer Information Seeking and Literacy Level with Preventable Cancer Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Analysis from a Nationally Representative U.S. Adult Survey Beomyoung Cho* Beomyoung Cho Sukwon Lee Sericea Stallings-Smith
Introduction
The literacy level of cancer information seekers (CISs) can significantly impact their prevention efforts. While studies highlight the importance of cancer information seeking as a means of preventing cancer risk factors (CRFs), there is a need to understand the extent of literacy level among CISs. We examined the association of cancer information seeking and literacy level with preventable CRFs.
Methods
We used the Health Information National Trends Survey-6, 2022. CISs who have looked for cancer information from any source were asked to answer four subsequent questions: whether they had challenges in locating information, frustration during the search, concerns about information quality, and comprehension difficulties. We considered CISs who had ≥1 of the four characteristics as having lower literacy. We classified all participants into three groups based on cancer information seeking and literacy level: non-seekers, CISs with higher literacy, and CISs with lower literacy. Five CRFs were dichotomized: cigarette smoking (have smoked ≥100 cigarettes and currently smoke every day/some days); binge drinking (≥5 [male] or ≥4 [female] alcoholic drinks on one occasion/past 30 days; being overweight/obese (≥25 body mass index [kg/m2]); physical inactivity (≤150 minutes/week); and experiencing sunburn (≥1 times/past 12 months). We conducted multinomial logistic regression analysis to examine the association of cancer information seeking/literacy level with cumulative CRFs, adjusting for covariates (n = 4,684 adults).
Results
CISs with higher literacy had lower odds of having single CRF (AOR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.95) and ≥2 CRFs concurrently (AOR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.39, 0.91) compared to non-seekers, while there was no significant difference between non-seekers and CISs with lower literacy.
Conclusions
Disseminating easily accessible and understandable cancer information may help reduce disparities in preventable CRFs between individuals with and without lower literacy.