Evaluation of cancer patient carers refer to information resources about cancer

Evaluation of cancer patient carers refer to information resources about cancer. Cancer is the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular disease in worldwide. It is necessary to be informed the patients about cancer in order to patients cope with cancer. Carers also informed as in patients, about cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Oncologists are the primer sources about cancer information. Although the patients mostly informed by doctors, they need to explore some additional information regarding cancer due to limited time as well as hesitations. In this study it was aimed to evaluate the information sources about cancer in carers of patients who followed and treated in department of Medical Oncology, university of Dokuz Eylül. Three hundred ninety one cancer patient carers were included in this study who addmitted department of Medical Oncology and Chemotherapy Unit between May 01 and June 30. A questionnaire consist of 23 questions were asked that 11 of them were regarding the demographic charactheristics of participants while 12 of them were about the information resources. At the end of the study, 183 of the participants were female, 208 were male and the mean age of participants was 47,9±13,6. 71,1% of respondents had high school or higher education level and 89,4% of participants lived in city. Oncologists and internet were the most preffered information resource about cancer in patient carers, 87,2% and 71,6% respectively. Among the participants who preffered the internet, official web sites (70,4%), sites of cancer socities (53,2%) and social networks and forums (32,1%) respectively. Age, education levels, montly income and living place were the main factors affecting the preference of internet. Participants who have higher education levels, age under 65 years and income more than 1000 TL per month have used the internet as an information resource (p<0,001). Keywords: Cancer, carers, information sources, internet