Cancer-Related Information Seeking and Scanning Behavior of Older Vietnamese Immigrants

Abstract

Information seeking and scanning refers to active pursuit of information and passive exposure, respectively. Cancer is the leading cause of mortality for Asian Americans, yet little is known about their cancer information seeking/scanning behaviors (SSB). We aimed to evaluate cancer SSB among older limited English proficient (LEP) Vietnamese immigrants, compared with Whites/African Americans. One hundred four semistructured interviews about breast/prostate/colon cancer SSB (ages 50–70) were conducted in English and Vietnamese, transcribed, and coded for frequency of source use, active/passive nature, depth of recall, and relevance to decisions. Higher SSB was associated with cancer screening. In contrast to non-Vietnamese, SSB for Vietnamese was low. Median number of cancer screening sources was two (vs. eight to nine for non-Vietnamese). They also had less seeking, lower recall, and less decision-making relevance for information on colon cancer and all cancers combined. Overall, Vietnamese had lower use of electronic, print, and interpersonal sources for cancer SSB, but more research is needed to disentangle potential effects of ethnicity and education. This study brings to light striking potential differences between cancer SSB of older LEP Vietnamese compared with Whites/African Americans. Knowledge of SSB patterns among linguistically isolated communities is essential for efficient dissemination of cancer information to these at-risk communities.

Dr. Nguyen was supported by a Cancer Control Career Development Award from the American Cancer Society (CCCDA-05-161-01) and a Pfizer Fellowship in Health Literacy/Clear Health Communication. The authors also acknowledge the funding support of the National Cancer Institute's Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR) located at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania (P50-CA095856). Additional funding was provided by pilot grants from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (University of Pennsylvania) and the Center for Asian Health (Temple University). The authors thank the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC), the Vietnamese United National Association of Greater Philadelphia, the Vietnamese Association for Aging in Philadelphia and Suburbs, and the Vietnamese community of St. Helena Parish for their assistance in participant recruitment. They also thank Chau Nguyen, To Lan Chau, Dr. Huan M. Vu, and Gia An Vu for data collection/data management.

Notes

S.D. = standard deviation; *significant at .05 level; **significant at .01 level; ***significant at .001 level.

AA = African American; Viet = Vietnamese American; *significant at .05 level; **significant at .01 level; ***significant at .001 level.

Note: For prostate cancer, median values are identical across race/ethnicities, but means were different, thus accounting for the statistically significant differences between groups.

AA = African American; Viet = Vietnamese American; *significant at .05 level; **significant at .01 level, ***significant at .001 level.

AA = African American; Viet = Vietnamese American; *significant (p < .05); **significant (p < .01); ***significant (p < .001).

SSB = information seeking and scanning behaviors; HS grad = high school diploma or more; C.I. = confidence interval; *significant at .05 level, **significant at .01 level, ***significant at .001 level.

Note: Due to differences in educational attainment between Vietnamese Americans and non-Vietnamese Americans, an interaction term was added to the model. The reference group is “non-Vietnamese Americans with high school education.”

*Statistically significant.