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Do women attending a screening mammogram access ehealth information from the internet?

A longitudinal study is being conducted on a cohort of 415 women at a breast screening service in Sydney to determine any changes to their behaviour of access of eHealth information and also explore the predictors and user needs over a two-year period. Behaviour of access of eHealth information has been studied in cancer patients [1-4], but no previous study has looked at people’s behaviour of internet access of information prior to their diagnosis and followed them through a continuum of diagnosis and treatment. This longitudinal study is being conducted in three phases. In the first phase (recruitment of women in the cohort), women’s baseline characteristics, behaviour and perceptions of access were explored. Preliminary analysis shows that though 80% of women accessed the internet and 62% accessed health related information from the internet, only 7% of women had accessed breast health and screening information from the internet. It is also interesting to note that 70% of women expressed a perceived need to obtain more information from the internet if diagnosed with breast cancer. This study supports using the internet as a viable way of communicating health information to women in all age groups particularly the 50-69 years age group. KeywordsBreast screening, eHealth, perceptions, behaviour