Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in developing countries and
influnced by life-style. Cancer information seeking behavior of individuals is pertinent to
increase awareness towards cancer that, enables peoples to improve their life-style.
Objective: The aim of this research study was to assess cancer information seeking
behavior (CISB) and its associated factors among students in Debre Tabor University.
Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional quantitative study design complemented
with a qualitative method was conducted from March 01-30/2019.A total of 844 students
was selected using multistage stratified sampling technique. Data entry and analyses
were done using Epi info version 7.2 and SPSS version 20 respectively. Descriptive
statistics and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to determine
proportion of CISB and to identify factors associated with CISB. For qualitative study
purposive sampling was employed till saturation of information achieved. Hence, 10
participants were interviewed and thematic content analysis was used.
Result: The proportion of cancer information seeking in the past 12 month was 30.1%.
The primary and secondary sources of information used are healthcare providers (48%)
and Internet (27.6%), respectively. The majority 39.8% were looked about breast
cancer. Year of study: 3
rd
year (AOR=2.29, 95%CI=1.43,3.69), 4
VII
th
year (AOR=3.92,
95%CI=1.82, 8.45), Internet access (AOR=6.07, 95%CI= 4.05, 9.10), health literacy
level (AOR=1.8, 95%CI=1.21, 2.68), self-reported health condition (AOR=1.85, 95%
CI=1.25, 2.73), perceived susceptibility to cancer (AOR=2.48, 95% CI=1.47, 4.2)
perceived severity of cancer (AOR=3.33, 95% CI=1.85, 6.0) are identified to be the
factors associated with cancer information seeking behavior.
Conclusion: The proportion of cancer information seeking among university students
was low. Being 3
rd
and 4
th
year student, having internet access, being healthy, having
adequate health literacy level, having high level of perception to cancer exposure and
having high perception severity of cancer were significantly increase the likelihood of
cancer information seeking. Thus focusing health education strategies that increase:
health literacy & awareness creation about cancer for students will help to increase
cancer information seeking.
Keywords: Cancer, Information, Seeking Behavior, University Student, Ethiopia.
