An Initial Look at the Associations of a Variety of Health-Related Online Activities With Cancer Fatalism

It has been an important public health goal to remove cancer fatalism because of its negative influence on both cancer screening and preventive behaviors. The present study examines roles of the Internet, as an emerging, crucial source of cancer information, in the effect of education on cancer fatalism. Based on our secondary analysis of a nationally representative survey (i.e., Health Information National Trends Survey 4 Cycle 1), we found that people with low levels of education are less likely than their more educated counterparts to engage in online health information seeking that is negatively linked to fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention. In addition, the effect of education on online health information seeking was detected only among people who trust online health information. The implications of these findings for cancer control and for research on the digital divide and communication inequalities are discussed.