Accurate and inaccurate beliefs about cancer risk factors among Spanish-preferring adults in the United States.

Objective: To characterize inaccurate and accurate beliefs about cancer risk factors held among Spanish-preferring adults in the United States. Methods: From a national probability panel, we surveyed 196 Hispanic adults who prefer completing questionnaires in Spanish. We also used data from a representative sample of 1200 adults in the US to compare belief acceptance. Results: Many less accepted accurate beliefs about cancer risk factors related to topics like fruit/vegetable consumption, weight loss, and alcohol use. Several inaccurate beliefs were widely held, with some being more accepted in the Spanish-preferring sample than the general US adult sample. Higher levels of self-reported media literacy and information scanning associated with more acceptance of both accurate Conclusion: Acceptance of accurate beliefs and rejection of inaccurate beliefs varied across potential cancer risk factors. Future Spanish-language public health messaging should address these belief inconsistencies when providing up-to-date cancer-related recommendations or correcting inaccurate information in the public communication environment. Innovation: Our study provides comprehensive information about cancer beliefs among Spanish-preferring adults in the United States, which was not previously available, and find that media literacy is a concept likely to be important to consider when putting together intervention tools to combat misinformation.