Table 1. Prevalence of Trust In Government Health Agencies for Cancer Information by Sociodemographic Characteristics and Political Ideology (N = 3254)a.
| Sample characteristic | Total, No. (weighted %) | Trust in government health agencies, weighted % (95% CI) [No.] | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little/not at all (n = 707) | Some/a lot (n = 2547) | |||
| Sex | ||||
| Female | 1794 (50.1) | 21.4 (18.6-24.6) [389] | 78.6 (75.4-81.4) [1405] | .86 |
| Male | 1338 (49.9) | 21.9 (18.0-26.6) [286] | 78.1 (74.0-81.8) [1052] | |
| Age group, y | ||||
| 18-34 | 451 (27.5) | 17.1 (11.8-24.1) [78] | 82.9 (75.9-88.2) [373] | .10 |
| 35-49 | 635 (26.4) | 22.9 (18.2-28.5) [122] | 77.0 (71.5-81.8) [513] | |
| 50-64 | 990 (27.3) | 21.4 (17.6-25.8) [223] | 78.6 (74.2-82.4) [767] | |
| ≥65 | 1121(18.8) | 27.0 (22.9-31.4) [268] | 73.0 (68.6-77.1) [853] | |
| Educational level | ||||
| High school or less | 739 (27.9) | 31.5 (26.3-37.2) [216] | 68.5 (62.8-73.7) [523] | .001 |
| Some college | 953 (40.0) | 19.7 (15.5-24.5) [212] | 80.0 (75.5-84.5) [741] | |
| College graduate or more | 1550 (32.1) | 16.1 (13.3-19.4) [276] | 83.9 (80.6-86.7) [1274] | |
| Annual household income, US $ | ||||
| <20 000 | 473 (13.3) | 19.9 (14.6-26.4) [127] | 80.1 (73.6-85.4) [346] | .16 |
| 20 000-34 999 | 389 (10.7) | 24.8 (19.6-30.8) [103] | 75.2 (69.3-80.4) [286] | |
| 35 000-49 999 | 411 (12.1) | 28.3 (19.8-38.7) [102] | 71.7 (61.3-80.2) [309] | |
| 50 000-74 999 | 555 (19.1) | 23.8 (17.2-32.0) [117] | 76.2 (68.0-82.8) [438] | |
| ≥75 000 | 1263 (44.8) | 18.9 (15.6-22.7) [217] | 81.1 (77.3-84.4) [1046] | |
| Race and ethnicityb | ||||
| Black or African American | 396 (10.7) | 26.1 (19.3-34.3) [87] | 73.9 (65.7-80.7) [309] | .42 |
| Hispanic | 499 (16.6) | 17.8 (12.0-25.5) [93] | 82.2 (74.5-88.0) [406] | |
| White | 1965 (64.9) | 21.9 (18.9-25.1) [435] | 78.1 (74.9-81.1) [1530] | |
| Otherc | 249 (7.8) | 21.7 (14.2-31.8) [47] | 78.3 (68.2-85.8) [202] | |
| Residence | ||||
| Urban | 2895 (88.0) | 21.5 (19.0-24.3) [611] | 78.5 (75.7-81.0) [2284] | .44 |
| Rural | 359 (12.0) | 24.3 (18.1-31.7) [96] | 75.7 (68.3-81.9) [263] | |
| Having a regular health care clinician | ||||
| No | 946 (37.1) | 25.9 (21.6-30.8) [242] | 74.1 (69.2-78.4) [704] | .01 |
| Yes | 2269 (62.9) | 19.5 (17.0-22.2) [457] | 80.5 (77.8-83.0) [1812] | |
| Comorbidity | ||||
| None | 1264 (48.6) | 20.0 (16.6-24.0) [264] | 80. 0 (76.0-83.4) [1000] | .18 |
| At least 1 | 1960 (51.4) | 23.4 (20.3-26.7) [432] | 76.6 (73.3-80.0) [1528] | |
| Political ideologyd | ||||
| Conservative | 1129 (33.3) | 27.4 (22.9-32.3) [291] | 72.6 (67.7-77.0) [838] | .001 |
| Moderate | 1130 (37.2) | 21.7 (17.9-26.0) [253] | 78.3 (74.0-82.0) [877] | |
| Liberal | 995 (29.5) | 15.8 (12.6-19.6) [163] | 84.2 (80.4-87.4) [832] | |
Participants were asked to assess their trust in government health organizations as sources of cancer information with the following prompt: “In general, how much would you trust information about cancer from government health agencies?” Response options included “a lot,” “some,” “a little,” and “not at all.” A lot and some were collapsed into a single response category, and a little and not at all were also collapsed into a single response category.
Race was assessed as part of the sociodemographic characteristics of study participants and was self-reported.
No further break down of the other category was available from the National Cancer Institute Health Information National Trends Survey.
Political ideology was derived with the survey question, “Thinking about politics these days, how would you describe your own political viewpoint?” Responses were categorized into 3 groups. Very liberal, liberal, and somewhat liberal were categorized “liberal,” and very conservative, conservative, and somewhat conservative were categorized “conservative.” The final category was “moderate.”