What is HINTS?
The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a biennial, cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of American adults that is used to assess the impact of the health information environment. Specifically, HINTS measures how people access and use health information; how people use information technology to manage health and health information; and the degree to which people are engaged in healthy behaviors. Finally, several items in HINTS have a specific focus on cancer prevention and control. Three iterations of HINTS exist: HINTS 2003, 2005, and 2007. As such, researchers can examine items and constructs that are common to all three iterations as a way to measure trends over time.
