Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Aug 14, 2020
Date Accepted: May 24, 2021

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Patients With Cancer Searching for Cancer- or Health-Specific Web-Based Information: Performance Test Analysis

Lange-Drenth L, Schulz H, Endsin G, Bleich C

Patients With Cancer Searching for Cancer- or Health-Specific Web-Based Information: Performance Test Analysis

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(8):e23367

DOI: 10.2196/23367

PMID: 34398801

PMCID: 8406111

Cancer patients searching for cancer- or health-specific online information: A qualitative analysis of navigation strategies and problems when using the Internet

  • Lukas Lange-Drenth; 
  • Holger Schulz; 
  • Gero Endsin; 
  • Christiane Bleich

ABSTRACT

Background:

Searching the Internet for cancer-related information helps cancer patients satisfy their unmet information needs and empower them to play a more active role in the management of their disease. However, to benefit from the search, patients need a sufficient level of skills to search, select, appraise, and apply online health information.

Objective:

To study the operational, navigation, information, and evaluation skills and problems of cancer patients performing cancer-related search tasks using the Internet.

Methods:

Twenty-one cancer patients were recruited during their stay at the rehabilitation clinic for oncological rehabilitation. The participants performed eight cancer-related search tasks using the Internet. The participants were asked to think aloud while performing the tasks, and screen activities were recorded. The types and frequency of performance problems were identified and coded into categories following an inductive coding process. Additionally, the performance and strategic characteristics of task execution were summarized descriptively.

Results:

All the participants experienced problems or difficulties executing the tasks, and a substantial percentage of tasks (40%) could not be completed successfully. The participants’ performance problems were coded into four categories: (1) operating the computer and web browser, (2) navigating and orientating, (3) utilizing search strategies, and (4) evaluating the relevance and reliability of online information. The most frequent problems occurred in the third and fourth categories. Nineteen (90%) participants used nontask-related search terms or nonspecific search terms. Twenty (95%) participants never controlled the source or topicality of the found information. Additionally, none of the participants verified the information on one website with that on another website for each task.

Conclusions:

A substantial group of cancer patients did not have the necessary skills to benefit from cancer-related Internet searching. Future interventions are needed to support patients in the development of sufficient Internet searching skills, focusing particularly on information and evaluation skills.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Lange-Drenth L, Schulz H, Endsin G, Bleich C

Patients With Cancer Searching for Cancer- or Health-Specific Web-Based Information: Performance Test Analysis

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(8):e23367

DOI: 10.2196/23367

PMID: 34398801

PMCID: 8406111

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.