Examining the roles of fatalism, stigma, and risk perception on cancer information seeking and avoidance among Chinese adults in Hong Kong

Abstract

Purpose:

To examine how cancer fatalism, stigma, and risk perception influence information seeking and avoidance among Chinese adults in Hong Kong.

Methods:

We administered an online survey to 616 Hong Kong Chinese adults using quota sampling and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.

Results:

Fatalism was positively associated with susceptibility (β = .25, p < .001), severity (β = .11, p = .03), and fear (β = .17, p < .001), while stigma was negatively associated with severity (β = −.22, p < .001). Severity (β = −.19, p < .001) was negatively associated but fear was positively associated with cancer information avoidance (β = .14, p = .01).

Implications for Psychosocial Providers or Policy:

Public health communication and education on cancer risks among ethnic Chinese communities in Hong Kong should be sensitive and address underlying cultural beliefs and views that may impede active information seeking.

Keywords:

• cancer information avoidance
• cancer information seeking
• cultural views on cancer
• family history of cancer
• risk perception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Cancer patients were found to have different information needs and information-seeking behavior compared with non-patients.³⁶ Given that cancer patients need to go for treatment and cope with negative effects of living with cancer, the risk perception and information seeking behaviors would be very different from people who are not suffering from cancer. Thus, we recruited only people without cancer history in the current study to examine how cultural views influenced information seeking behaviors.

2 The measurement models for both groups (with family cancer history vs without family cancer history) had acceptable level of model fit according to the CFA results. Next, we conducted multigroup CFAs to examine the measurement invariance between the groups. The difference between the configural model, χ$\mathrm{\chi }$²(562) = 1006.43, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.051, SRMR = 0.052, and the invariance model with factor loadings constrained, χ$\mathrm{\chi }$²(578) = 1024.97, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.050, SRMR = 0.054, was not significant, χ$\mathrm{\chi }$²(16) = 18.54, p = .29, which indicates measurement invariance between the groups.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by (FRG17-18/024).