Evaluation of cancer information overload and attitudes towards cancer screening in patients admitted to internal units

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Cancer is a disease that ranks second among the causes of death in the world and can be prevented by taking appropriate measures. Cancer screening is one of the most important methods in preventing cancer and maintaining health; on the other hand, cancer information overload is one of the important obstacles to screening. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cancer information overload and attitudes towards cancer screening in patients admitted to internal units. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The descriptive and cross-sectional researcj was carried out with the participation of 410 patients who applied to the internal units of Bilecik Training and Research Hospital. Patient Information Form, Attitude Scale Towards Cancer Screening, and Cancer Information Overload Scale were used as a data collection tool. The data obtained in the research were evaluated using the IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program, the 4.1.3 version of the R programming language and G*Power 3.1. FINDINGS: It was determined that the age average of the patients was 38.25±12.46, 69.8% were female, 68.8% were married, 58.5% had knowledge about cancer, and 66.1% did not have cancer screening. It was stated that the cancer knowledge level of the participants was low with an average of 17.14±4.91, and the level of attitude towards cancer screening was high with an average of 100.13±13.58. It was identified that the cancer information overload of the patients differed significantly according to their income level (p<0.05), and their attitudes towards cancer screening also showed a significant difference between monthly income, having a family/circle history of cancer, being knowledgeable about cancer, and having cancer screening (p<0.05). The regression model developed to determine the effect of cancer information overload on the attitude towards cancer screenings was found to be significant F (1.408) =49.896, p=0.001. Cancer information overload has a negative and significant effect on attitudes towards cancer screening (β=-0.321; t (408) =-6.855, p=0.001). In the study, it was measured that the most important variable according to Shapley Values in estimating the attitude towards cancer screening is cancer information overload. CONCLUSION: It is observed that the cancer information overload (CIO) of the patients is low and their attitudes towards cancer screening is high. In this thesis study, it was determined that the number of people who had cancer screening and their information about cancer were not sufficient. According to the research data, it was examined that as the cancer information load of the patients decreased, their attitudes towards screening increased. In this study, longitudinal studies for cancer screening are presented as a recommendation. In this study, outcomes was strengthened with machine learning approach predictive analysis and it is determined that the most important variable affects the attitude to cancer screening is Cancer Information Overload Scale. It is recommended to work with new models for prediction with machine learning approaches. Keywords: Cancer Information Overload, Attitudes towards Cancer Screening, Nurse, Machine Learning