Asian Americans’ Cancer Information Seeking, Fatalistic Belief, and Perceived Risk: Current Status and Relationships with Cancer Prevention and Detection Behaviors

Authors

Jungmi Jun, University of South CarolinaFollow
Xiaoli Nan

Keywords

Asian Americans; cancer; risk perception; fatalism; information-seeking; behavior

Disciplines

Community Health and Preventive Medicine

Abstract

This study pursues four research goals: (1) to examine Asian Americans and Asian ethnic groups’ (i.e., Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese) information seeking, fatalistic belief, and perceived risk of cancer, in comparison to non-Hispanic Whites; (2) to identify characteristics of Asian Americans who seek cancer information, hold fatalistic cancer belief, and perceive cancer risk; (3) to assess cancer prevention and detection behavior gaps between Asian Americans and Whites, and (4) to explore whether such gaps can be explained by cancer information seeking, fatalistic belief, and perceived risk. Data from 2011-2014 Health Information National Trends Surveys (HINTS) were analyzed. Asian Americans and most Asian ethnic groups were less likely to seek cancer information and perceive their cancer risk as lower than Whites. However, Asian Americans were less likely to hold some fatalistic beliefs (i.e., everything causes cancer, there are too many cancer prevention recommendations) than Whites. Asian Americans’ odds of engaging in breast cancer screening, physical activity, vegetable intake, and sun protection increased when cancer information seeking, fatalistic belief, and perceived risk of cancer were controlled.

Permissions

JM

Recommended Citation

Jun, Jungmi and Nan, Xiaoli (2018) "Asian Americans’ Cancer Information Seeking, Fatalistic Belief, and Perceived Risk: Current Status and Relationships with Cancer Prevention and Detection Behaviors," Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 10.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol11/iss1/10