Factors Related to Health Information Needs of Families Who Had Children with Cancer

 The continuous assessment of the parents' information needs and its factors affecting can increase the quality of childcare. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting the information needs of families who had children with cancer. This cross-sectional study conducted on the 244 families referring to Isfahan's Seyyed-Al-Shohada Hospital, who had children with cancer. The data was gathered through a researcher-made questionnaire with 48 items in four dimensions: access, presentation, and exchange of related health information; provision of cancer information by the health care provider; health and counseling facilities and services; and social, economic and spiritual supports. The construct validity of the questionnaire was assigned and its reliability through Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.96. The findings showed that the sex of the parent and the child's age were related to the overall score of the health information needs and the second dimension of the four dimensions of these needs (P>0.05). The sex of the parents, their level of education, the duration of diagnosis, the type of cancer, and the presence of a cancer patient in the second-degree family were related to the first dimension. Also the sex of the parents and their level of education, place of residence, income, and child’s age were factors affecting on the third dimension. And sex of the parents and their education, income, and child’s age were related to the fourth dimension of the health information needs of the children's family (P>0.05). Considering the impact of some individual, contextual, and socio-economic factors on the information needs of the families who had children with cancer, health care providers need to consider these factors to meet these information needs.