Message from:
Bradford W. Hesse, Ph.D.
Chief, Health Comm & Informatics Research Branch
Behavioral Research Program
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
To Our Current and Potential Grantees:
On behalf of the National Cancer Institute, it is with great pleasure that I announce the arrival of the latest installment of public release data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Since 2003, the HINTS survey has served as a cornerstone for statistically reliable information on how Americans aged 18 years and older get health information in a time of extraordinary change. This installment marks the release of the third biennial data point in the HINTS series. The installment brings with it a set of important improvements at the HINTS Web site for our partners.
For Communication Practitioners:
We have made it easier to look at questions across years of administration. You will begin with a simplified catalogue of questions, which will make it easy to track the years in which questions were asked. Once you have selected a question to review, a tabbed viewing screen will let you move quickly between presentations of data for individual years as well as an "All Years" overview of trends and comparisons. As before, you will be able to download charts and graphs for your own use in reports and presentations. An embellished Notes field will give you all the information you need to track the details of each year's administration including wording changes and subtle differences in types of respondents asked. While at the site, don't forget to check the latest collection of "HINTS Briefs," summarizing the results of empirical analyses being published on the data.
For Communication Researchers:
A fully documented data package is available for download in SAS, SPSS, and STATA formats. Please note that the latest administration of the HINTS instrument uses a split telephone + postal sampling frame to evaluate penetration of cell phone only households in the U.S. population. Weights are provided for each frame and composite weights are provided for analysis of the two frames combined. Be sure to read the accompanying documentation for instructions on how to analyze data with these newly embedded sampling features. You will also note that we have made it easy for you browse through an expanded set of resources on the site, and to add them to your own toolkit for easy download.
Also, stay tuned for further announcements on the third biennial HINTS Users Conference to be hosted by NCI in Silver Spring, Maryland on September 24-25 2009. We expect a "call for abstracts" to be issued at the beginning of March, with travel awards offered to students and general researchers for outstanding papers. Plans are to include best papers in a journal supplement to be published in 2010.
To all of our colleagues who have shown endless dedication in applying health communication science to the task of improving the health of Americans, we sincerely thank you and welcome you to the HINTS community. Come visit us at: http://hints.cancer.gov/
Sincerely,
Brad Hesse
Bradford W. Hesse, Ph.D.
Chief, Health Comm & Informatics Research Branch
Behavioral Research Program
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
Executive Plaza North, Room 4068
6130 Executive Blvd., MSC 7365
Bethesda, MD 20892-7365
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