| Sumario: | Background: It is necessary to raise a positive attitude towards cancer information to improve disease prevention and control. Objective: To identify social factors, health characteristics and cancer‐related perceptions and knowledge associated with a positive attitude towards cancer information. Design: We ran multivariate logistic regression models to analyse population‐based data from OncoBarómetro‐2010, a Spanish representative survey on perceptions and knowledge, related to cancer, conducted among 7938 people aged 18 years or more. Measurement: Attitudes towards cancer information. A positive attitude includes feeling motivated to keep informed, to have screening tests or to change lifestyle. A negative attitude includes feeling indifference, concern, frustration or fear. Results: 38.3% of the studied population reported having received information related to cancer (within the last 6 months). Among those, 31.5% expressed a negative attitude towards cancer information. People more likely to have a positive attitude towards cancer information (reference category: negative attitude) were people aged 35–74 (ref: aged 18–34) (P < 0.001) and cancer survivors (ref: those who had not had cancer) (OR: 3.05; 95% CI: 1.73–5.38). The likelihood of a positive attitude increased with the level of education (P < 0.001). The variables negatively associated with a positive attitude towards cancer information were poor self‐rated health status (ref: fair) (OR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.42–0.95) and high self‐perceived risk of developing cancer (ref: low) (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.60–0.92). Conclusions: These findings have potential to inform programmes designed to promote cancer prevention behaviours. Policies should target population groups with low socio‐economic groups, those with poor self‐rated health and individuals with high self‐perceived risk of cancer. Further, in order to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms, we need to focus on individuals with unhealthy lifestyles.
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