%0 Journal Article
%T A web-based knowledge database to provide evidence-based information to cancer patients: Utilization within the PIKKO study.
%A Schneider N
%A Altmann U
%A Brandt F
%A Hübner J
%A Strauss B
%A Keinki C
%J Support Care Cancer
%V 32
%N 8
%D 2024 Jul 17
%M 39017937
%F 3.359
%R 10.1007/s00520-024-08725-7
%X <B>OBJECTIVE: </B>Cancer is associated with an urgent need for understandable and reliable information, which is often not satisfied by information available online. Therefore, as part of the PIKKO project, a web-based knowledge database (WDB) was introduced to provide cancer patients with quality-assured, evidence-based information. This paper aims to provide insights into the usage (Who? How? What?) and the effects regarding health literacy of the WDB.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>A patient survey and automatically generated logfile data were evaluated. Two user groups, patients and patient navigators (PNs), were compared.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>The 13 PNs were responsible for 1/3 of all accesses over the entire duration of the project. The 413 patients used WDB twice on average and spent an average of 12 min per session online (PNs: 9 min per session, more frequently). The top 3 topics of interest were 'therapy', 'nutrition' and 'carcinogenesis' for the patients, and 'therapy', 'naturopathy' and 'legal regulations/support' for the PNs. Of the patients surveyed, 69% said that WDB was helpful in making informed decisions, 76% found the information they wanted and 90% thought WDB was an appropriate way to provide information.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>Our WDB provided important information about cancer and its treatment on a digital way both, to patients and PNs. In routine cancer care, the WDB can improve health literacy and informed decision-making.<BR><B>BACKGROUND: </B>This study was retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trial Register under DRKS00016703 (21 Feb 2019, retrospectively registered). https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00016703.