Cancer patients' sources of information: use and quality issues

Appropriate information, offered at the right time, has been recognised as a key factor in enabling patients to cope with a diagnosis of cancer. This paper describes the sources of information that are currently being utilised by patients and the perceived quality of these sources. A sample of 430 patients were asked to indicate on a series of Likert scales their views of 19 commonly available sources of information. The most frequently cited sources of information were the hospital consultant, General Practitioner, chemotherapy/radiotherapy staff, ward staff and family/friends. It is of interest that the internet was only used by under 10% of patients. The source that scored the highest in terms of quality of information was the specialist/Macmillan nurses. GPs and written material scored poorly in terms of quality of information. The relationship between information and sources, gender, age and diagnosis was also examined. Age was found to have the greatest influence on the perceived quality of information and the frequency of its use. The paper concludes that there is a need for improvement in the provision of information by the primary health care team. The issue of the quality of written information available for patients requires further investigation to identify the type of written material used. Furthermore, family/friends should be recognised as important sources of information to many patients. Finally, there is a need for more specialist nurses, as they are clearly the preferred source of information for the majority of cancer patients.