Health Information National Trends Survey

Health Information National Trends Survey

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a biennial, cross-sectional, nationally-representative survey of American adults sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. HINTS provides publicly available data on American adults' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and behaviors related to cancer prevention and control and communication.

The survey provides updates on changing patterns and needs related to communication and health, identifies changing health communications trends and practices, assesses cancer information searching, sources used, and search experiences and provides information about how cancer is perceived by the public.

The HINTS data collection program provides national-level surveillance on health communication in the context of cancer prevention and control. HINTS data are publicly available and a large community of HINTS data users examines questions including how adults 18 years and older use different communication channels (e.g., the Internet) to obtain vital health information for themselves and their loved ones and the experiences people have when they search for cancer information. Program planners can use the data to overcome barriers to health information access and usage and to obtain data to help them create more effective communication strategies. Finally, social scientists use the data to refine theories of health communication and to recommend methods to reduce the burden of cancer.

HINTS data are available for public use and can be downloaded from the National Cancer Institute. As a national-level surveillance vehicle for cancer and health communication, HINTS can make valuable contributions to the larger cyberinfrastructure devoted to health and may potentially be leveraged with other national-level surveys (e.g., The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey and National Health Interview Survey) to gauge the effects of policy changes on population health.

Read more about Health Information National Trends Survey:  HINTS Knowledge Products

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