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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

The Penn Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research will examine how people make sense of the complex public information environment and how that affects the behavioral choices they make relevant to cancer. The effects of the public information environment occur in the context of individuals' personal knowledge, skills and characteristics, their social relationships, and their contact with health professionals and health institutions. The Center will bring together scholars with a range of disciplinary backgrounds and conceptual frameworks for each project and core, including communication science, medical science, public health, and social, cognitive and clinical psychology, This primary focus on research will complement careful attention to the development of new research and research approaches in the area, the training of researchers in the area of cancer communication, and the dissemination of results in ways that influence practice. The Effects of Public Information in Cancer (EPIC) Center has seven specific aims: (1)To implement a comprehensive research program to investigate the effects of publicly available cancer information, (2)To refine and elaborate upon theories of cancer communication, and theories of behavior change as they relate to public cancer information, (3) To develop new measures and methods for cancer communication research, (4) To provide a new education and training program in cancer communication research, (5) To support the development of new research proposals which promise to break conceptual or methodological ground, and which encourage the involvement of minority researchers in the field, (6) To ensure that important results from EPIC Center research are used effectively (7) To ensure interdisciplinary collaboration on each EPIC Center research project, in the training of new scholars of cancer communication, and all work undertaken under the Center's auspices. The proposal includes 3 full research projects, three cores and a developmental program with 2 pilot projects. The three research projects include studies of (1) information scanning and searching behavior about prostate, breast and colon cancer-related decisions, (2) differential responsiveness to anti-tobacco advertising varying in content and format among high and low sensation seeking young adults, (3) how the framing of news media information about genetic risk for nicotine addiction influences smoking-related cognitions and behaviors. The cores include Administration which will provide oversight, undertake dissemination, Training which will supervise a program of post-doctoral fellowships, and Theory and Methods which will assist projects in the development of common conceptual and methodological approaches, as well as a developmental program to support pilot projects. We assure interdisciplinary collaboration by requiring all projects and cores to have communication and cancer control co-Primary Investigators, by establishing cross-Center educational programs and shared reviews of ongoing and proposed research.