The Evolution of NCI’s Health Information National Trends Survey: Methods, Data, and Future Directions

The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Health Information National Trends Survey® (HINTS®), was conceived in 1997 during a multidisciplinary conference focused on risk communication that included attendees representing the fields of psychology, health behavior, health education, public health, clinical medicine, and health journalism. The key recommendation from the conference was for NCI to develop a premiere communication-specific population survey to track health and cancer communication-related phenomena. This led to NCI developing and launching HINTS in 2003. HINTS is a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of the U.S. noninstitutionalized adult population (18 and older) that collects data on the public's need for, access to, and use of health- and cancer-related related information and health- and cancer-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. As of 2024, HINTS had been administered 17 times over a 21-year period. The resulting datasets can be utilized for secondary analysis to examine a range of social and behavioral research questions in cancer control and population sciences. The datasets can be examined individually or merged to test for trends over time or to create larger samples for analysis. The evolution of the program has included testing and changing instrument administration modes, oversampling specific populations, and assessing priority constructs, as well as conducting methodological experiments to keep pace with emerging trends in survey research. HINTS has also expanded beyond its cross-sectional format to include data linkages and a longitudinal panel, enabling researchers to address a wider range of research questions. HINTS methods, data products, and impact are discussed.