Effects of communicating lifetime risks and screening rates of colorectal cancer and breast cancer

This study featured two online experiments, one focused on breast cancer (N = 632) and one focused on colorectal cancer (N = 671), to examine the effects of communicating national cancer lifetime risks and screening rates among samples of screening-eligible adults in the United States. Findings confirmed prior work in showing that people overestimated colorectal/breast cancer lifetime risks but underestimated colorec tal/breast cancer screening rates. Communicating the national lifetime risk of dying from colorectal/breast cancer lowered people's national risk estimates, which in turn was associated with lower perceived cancer risks for themselves. In contrast, communicating the national colorectal/breast cancer screening rate increased people's estimates of the prevalence of cancer screening, which in turn was associated with higher perceived self-efficacy to engage in cancer screening and greater screening intentions. We conclude that efforts to promote cancer screening may benefit from messages that inc lude data on national cancer screening rates but may not benefit from including national rates of lifetime cancer risks.
Source: Risk Analysis - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research