Informational needs of recently diagnosed cancer patients

This article presents data pertaining to the informational needs of recently diagnosed cancer patients, which are described in relation to their nature, relevance, and scope in relation to disease, personal, family, and social concerns. The informational needs of these patients were measured by the Derdiarian Informational Needs Assessment (DINA) instrument, which was developed in the first phase of the study. Its content validity was established by 100% agreement among experts; the test-retest reliability was determined by McNemar test of symmetry measures ranging from 88 (p = 0.14) to 100% (p = 1.0), and the test-retest reliability of the importance value items of DINA were determined by paired t test measures ranging from 1(21) = −1.7, (p = 0.75) to 1(23) = 0.0, (p = 1.0). The differences in informational needs among groups different in person- and situation-related variables were very few, indicating the need for further exploration of the relationship between such variables and informational needs.