Stressing Risks Is Best Way To Motivate Women To Get Screened.(for breast cancer)

2001 AUG 9 - (NewsRx Network) -- Emphasizing the risks of avoiding breast cancer screening may be the best way to motivate women to get screened, at least for some ethnic groups, suggest the results of a study in the July 2001 issue of Health Psychology.

But public health officials tend to stress that screening can help save a woman's life, rather than stress the risk of not getting screened, that is that failing to detect breast cancer early can cost a woman her life.

"Community and governmental organizations involved in promoting cancer detection behaviors have resisted using messages that emphasize undesirable consequences," says lead study author Peter Salovey, of the department of psychology at Yale University.

Why is stressing the risks of not getting a mammography most effect at motivating women to get one? Getting screened is inherently frightening since it exposes one to the risk of discovering cancer. Many women would rather avoid such unpleasantness unless they are reminded that the benefit of getting a mammography outweighs the risk of not getting one, according to the study.

Over 750 women over the age of 40 participated in the study. Most of the women were black, white, or Hispanic. They were randomly selected to watch either a video emphasizing the benefits of getting a mammogram, or a video emphasizing the risks of not getting one.

Some of these videos were also tailored along ethnic lines. A random selection of women watched videos depicting women of their ethnicity, and conveying breast cancer statistics targeted to their ethnicity. The rest of the women watched videos depicting women of different ethnic backgrounds.

The study participants were asked about their mammography use six and 12 months after participating in the study. Those who saw multicultural (rather ...