Reifegerste D, Czerwinski F, Rosset M, Baumann E, Kludt E, Weg-Remers S. Demographic and cancer-related differences between self-seeking patients and supported patients: Analysis of cancer information-service data.
Psychooncology 2019;
28:759-766. [PMID:
30707476 DOI:
10.1002/pon.5016]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2018] [Revised: 01/14/2019] [Accepted: 01/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Surrogate information seeking is quite common, and several studies have presented data on caregivers, family members, and friends who seek health information on the Internet or from a cancer-information service (CIS) on behalf of cancer patients. However, these studies provide little information about the patients who are supported by surrogate seekers. Therefore, this study analyzed demographic and cancer-related differences, including diverse informational needs, between self-seeking patients and patients who benefited from surrogate seekers (ie, caregivers, family, or friends) requesting information on their behalf.
METHODS
We conducted a retrospective audit of phone and e-mail inquiries to a German CIS between January and December 2016 from self-seeking patients (n = 13 723) and surrogate information seekers, as well as the corresponding supported patients (n = 6696).
RESULTS
Supported patients were more likely to be males (P < 0.001), older than self-seeking patients (P < 0.001), and older than the corresponding surrogate seekers (P < 0.001). They were also more likely to be in the diagnostic or palliative stage (P < 0.001) and were less likely to suffer from breast cancer or prostate cancer (P < 0.001) than self-seeking patients. There were significant differences in the CIS requests of self-seekers and surrogate seekers.
CONCLUSIONS
The results point to different support needs of self-seekers and surrogate seekers. Thus, surrogate seekers and their corresponding supported patients should be seen as a separate target group to self-seeking patients, with the former requiring informational and emotional support on diverging topics and at different disease stages.
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