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Who is Using Childhood Cancer Information on the Internet ? A Survey of Users Visiting "Children's Cancer Web"
S. J. Cotterill; Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Med Pediatr Oncol. 1999, 33(3) 294 (Abstract)
Children's Cancer Web (CCW) provides an on-line directory of paediatric cancer information on the Internet (http://www.cancerindex.org/ccw). It was established by the
author in 1996 and now has an average of 110 visitors per day. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic characteristics of visitors to CCW and investigate the use of children's cancer information on
the Internet. An on-line questionnaire was devised and a request to complete it was included in each page of CCW. Anonymous Email replies from 440 self-selected individuals were received over a 30 day period, of
whom 63% were female. The age distribution of respondents was under 16 yrs (5%), 16-19 (12%), 20-29 (26%), 30-39 (32%), 40-49 (17%) and 50 or older (8%). Replies were received from individuals in 37 countries,
overall 68% were from the USA. Respondents classed themselves as parents of a child affected by cancer (28%), relatives or friends (19%), cancer patients (2%), survivors of childhood cancer (6%), students / medical
students (16%), other public (9%), health professionals (17%), and scientists / researchers (3%). Use of the Internet varied according to group; parents usage included information about cancer (86%), treatments
(69%), organisations / support groups (56%), complementary and alternative treatments (26%), abstracts and journal articles (36%) and news about research and new treatments (42%). Opinions about the ease of locating
relevant information varied according to Internet experience. 302 respondents were most interested in one particular type of cancer; brain tumours (9%) and lymphomas (5%) were under-represented compared to
population based distributions of cancers; there are a large number of web sites about brain tumours and lymphomas which are not paediatric specific. Within the limitations of self-selected cohort this study
provides a profile of visitors to CCW and gives some insight into those currently using paediatric cancer resources on the Internet in general. This clearly has implications for the public, health
professionals, researchers, and information providers.
Note: the old URL (www.ncl.ac.uk/child-health/guides/guide2.htm) appeared in the original abstract.
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