Comparing Cancer Information Needs for Consumers in the US and China

Due to the differences in environments and cultures, consumers seeking cancer information in various regions of the world may have diverse needs. This study compares the cancer information needs for consumers in the US and China. Specifically, we first collected 1,000 cancer-related questions from Yahoo! Answers and Baidu Zhidao, respectively. Then, we developed a taxonomy of health information needs and manually classified the questions using the taxonomy. Finally, we analyzed the characteristics of information needs from consumers in both countries and summarized the differences between them. Our study demonstrated that although there are some common needs between consumers in the US and China, there are several significant differences between the two countries: the Chinese consumers are more likely to seek diagnosis and treatment online, while the US consumers prefer to seek common medical knowledge online.