INFORMATION NEEDS AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR WOMEN WITH BREAST-CANCER - A FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

This paper reports a study which examined the specific information nee ds and sources of information for 105 women with breast cancer at two time points, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagno sis, At diagnosis the priority information needs concerned survival is sues, Further from diagnosis survival issues were still a concern, but information about the risk to family members of getting breast cancer showed a significant increase in importance, Information about sexual attractiveness was ranked last at both the newly diagnosed and follow -up stages, Information sources at the time of diagnosis centred aroun d the specialist breast care service, while further from diagnosis few professional or voluntary sector sources were utilized, with women re ceiving most of their information from media sources such as women's m agazines, The relevance of these findings for nurses and other health care professionals is discussed.