TY - JOUR
T1 - Motivation for health information seeking and processing about clinical trial enrollment
AU - Yang, Z. Janet
AU - Mccomas, Katherine
AU - Gay, Geri
AU - Leonard, John P.
AU - Dannenberg, Andrew J.
AU - Dillon, Hildy
N1 - Funding Information:
Data collection for this study was supported by a research grant from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This report represents the views of the authors of this paper and not necessarily the views of the funding agency. The authors thank this journal’s anonymous reviewers for their very useful guidance toward improving the paper.
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Low patient accrual in clinical trials poses serious concerns for the advancement of medical science in the United States. Past research has identified health communication as a crucial step in overcoming barriers to enrollment. However, few communication scholars have studied this problem from a sociopsychological perspective to understand what motivates people to look for or pay attention to information about clinical trial enrollment. This study applies the model of Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) to this context of health decision making. By recognizing the uncertainties embedded in clinical trials, we view clinical trial enrollment as a case study of risk. With data from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 500 adults living in the United States, we used structural equation modeling to test the central part of the RISP model. In particular, we examined the role of optimistic feelings, as a type of positive affect, in motivating information seeking and processing. Our results indicated that rather than exerting an indirect influence on information seeking through motivating a psychological need for more information, optimistic feelings have more direct relationships with information seeking and processing. Similarly, informational subjective norms also exhibit a more direct relationship with information seeking and processing. These results suggest merit in applying the RISP model to study health decision making related to clinical trial enrollment. Our findings also render practical implications on how to improve communication about clinical trial enrollment.
AB - Low patient accrual in clinical trials poses serious concerns for the advancement of medical science in the United States. Past research has identified health communication as a crucial step in overcoming barriers to enrollment. However, few communication scholars have studied this problem from a sociopsychological perspective to understand what motivates people to look for or pay attention to information about clinical trial enrollment. This study applies the model of Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) to this context of health decision making. By recognizing the uncertainties embedded in clinical trials, we view clinical trial enrollment as a case study of risk. With data from a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 500 adults living in the United States, we used structural equation modeling to test the central part of the RISP model. In particular, we examined the role of optimistic feelings, as a type of positive affect, in motivating information seeking and processing. Our results indicated that rather than exerting an indirect influence on information seeking through motivating a psychological need for more information, optimistic feelings have more direct relationships with information seeking and processing. Similarly, informational subjective norms also exhibit a more direct relationship with information seeking and processing. These results suggest merit in applying the RISP model to study health decision making related to clinical trial enrollment. Our findings also render practical implications on how to improve communication about clinical trial enrollment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955098931&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77955098931&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10410236.2010.483338
DO - 10.1080/10410236.2010.483338
M3 - Article
C2 - 20677046
AN - SCOPUS:77955098931
SN - 1041-0236
VL - 25
SP - 423
EP - 436
JO - Health Communication
JF - Health Communication
IS - 5
ER -