Belief in numbers: When and why women disbelieve tailored breast cancer risk statistics.
Published
Journal Article
To examine when and why women disbelieve tailored information about their risk of developing breast cancer.690 women participated in an online program to learn about medications that can reduce the risk of breast cancer. The program presented tailored information about each woman's personal breast cancer risk. Half of women were told how their risk numbers were calculated, whereas the rest were not. Later, they were asked whether they believed that the program was personalized, and whether they believed their risk numbers. If a woman did not believe her risk numbers, she was asked to explain why.Beliefs that the program was personalized were enhanced by explaining the risk calculation methods in more detail. Nonetheless, nearly 20% of women did not believe their personalized risk numbers. The most common reason for rejecting the risk estimate was a belief that it did not fully account for personal and family history.The benefits of tailored risk statistics may be attenuated by a tendency for people to be skeptical that these risk estimates apply to them personally.Decision aids may provide risk information that is not accepted by patients, but addressing the patients' personal circumstances may lead to greater acceptance.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Scherer, LD; Ubel, PA; McClure, J; Greene, SM; Alford, SH; Holtzman, L; Exe, N; Fagerlin, A
Published Date
- August 2013
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 92 / 2
Start / End Page
- 253 - 259
PubMed ID
- 23623330
Pubmed Central ID
- 23623330
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1873-5134
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0738-3991
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/j.pec.2013.03.016
Language
- eng