Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the amount to which breast cancer patients in Germany use the internet to obtain information and if this affects their trust in physicians or their involvement in treatment decision-making.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 745 patients in 34 Breast Health Centres in the German region of Nordrhein-Westfalen. The instrument was an adapted version of the Cologne Patient Questionnaire (KPF-BK).
Results: Of the 584 women who sent back a filled out questionnaire 34.7% have used the internet to obtain information on their condition. The use of the internet was correlated positively with education and negatively with age. There was no association between use of the internet and trust in physician and a positive but small association between use of the internet and perceived involvement in care according to the data (p<0.05; sr2 = 0.01).
Conclusions: The common concern that trust between patients and their doctors could be jeopardised by patient information on the internet is not supported by the overall data of this study.
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