Cancer information service caller demographics

Includes bibliographical references (pages 47-51)The Cancer Information Service (CIS) is a toll-free telephone line providing the public with cancer-related information and referrals to medical resources. The purpose of the study was to compare and contrast CIS callers.\ud Review of the literature included studies of other telephone services, health knowledge and status, health service utilization, sources of health information, media usage, and response to media promotions. Each of the reviewed literature areas revealed differences across various demographic characteristics. The null hypotheses of the study were that no differences would be seen among CIS callers in response to media promotions or use of the Service.\ud Data on calls received from January to December, 1983, were collected through use of a call record form. A total of 10,857 calls were received from adults in southern California. The demographic characteristics studied--and treated as the independent variables???were age, sex, race/ethnic group, and education level. The dependent variables were type of caller, subject of inquiry, cancer site of inquiry, and source of referral to the CIS. (See more in text.