Gender differences in symptom misattribution for coronary heart disease symptoms and intentions to seek health care.

Women are more likely to delay seeking care for coronary heart disease (CHD) symptoms than men. We tested whether this was because they are more likely to misattribute CHD symptoms. Data were collected in December 2016.

Lay beliefs about risk: relation to risk behaviors and to probabilistic risk perceptions.

Lay illness risk beliefs are commonly held philosophies about how risk works. These include beliefs that one's personal illness risk is unknowable and beliefs that thinking about one's risk can actually increase that risk. Beliefs about risk may impact risk behaviors and thereby subsequent health status.

Gender bias in clinical decision making emerges when patients with coronary heart disease symptoms also have psychological symptoms.

Background: Delayed treatment may contribute to women's relatively higher morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD). We tested whether disparities in treatment may be due to bias in diagnosis and treatment recommendations for women with psychological symptoms.

Methods: Fourth year medical students (N = 225) from 13 U.

Low Health Literacy and Health Information Avoidance but Not Satisficing Help Explain "Don't Know" Responses to Questions Assessing Perceived Risk.

Background: People who say they don't know (DK) their disease risk are less likely to engage in protective behavior.

Purpose: This study examined possible mechanisms underlying not knowing one's risk for common diseases.

Methods: Participants were a nationally representative sample of 1005 members of a standing probability-based survey panel who answered questions about their comparative and absolute perceived risk for diabetes and colon cancer, health literacy, risk factor knowledge and health information avoidance, and beliefs about illness unpredictability.

Health Literacy and Use and Trust in Health Information.

There is a need to investigate which health information sources are used and trusted by people with limited health literacy to help identify strategies for addressing knowledge gaps that can contribute to preventable illness. We examined whether health literacy was associated with people's use of and trust in a range of potential health information sources. Six hundred participants from a GfK Internet survey panel completed an online survey.

Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.

Background: Health literacy and numeracy influence many health-related behaviors and outcomes. Health literacy and numeracy have been assessed objectively and subjectively, but interrelationships among the measures and the consistency of their association with health knowledge have not been examined.

Objective: To increase understanding of the structure and interrelations among objective and subjective health literacy and numeracy and how these constructs relate to knowledge of risk factors of two major diseases.

Worse Urinary, Sexual and Bowel Function Cause Emotional Distress and Vice Versa in Men Treated for Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: Definitive therapy for prostate cancer (eg surgery or radiotherapy) often has side effects, including urinary, sexual and bowel dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to test whether urinary, sexual and bowel functions contribute to emotional distress during the first 2 years after treatment and whether distress may in turn decrease function.

Materials And Methods: The study participants were 1,148 men diagnosed with clinically localized disease who were treated with surgery (63%) or radiotherapy (37%).

Causes and consequences of uncertainty about illness risk perceptions.

We identified determinants of uncertainty about perceived risk judgments and demonstrated that uncertainty is associated with lower engagement in risk-reducing behavior. We found that people likely have metacognitive awareness of when their judgments are overly pessimistic, resulting in uncertainty and that question context (more constraints) and people's time orientation (future orientation) are associated with lower uncertainty. Uncertainty about conditioned risk judgments was associated with lower engagement in exercising and eating a healthy diet in order to reduce risk for heart disease.

Racial or Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Prostate Cancer Survivors' Prostate-specific Quality of Life.

Objective: To conduct a prospective study to examine whether there are pretreatment and post-treatment disparities in urinary, sexual, and bowel quality of life (QOL) by race or ethnicity, education, or income in men with clinically localized prostate cancer (PCa.) METHODS: Participants (N = 1508; 81% white; 12% black; 7% Hispanic; 50% surgery; 27% radiotherapy; 23% active surveillance) completed the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite measure of PCa-specific QOL prior to treatment, 6 weeks, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after treatment. We analyzed pretreatment differences in QOL with multivariable linear regression and post-treatment differences with generalized estimating equation models.

Emotional Distress Increases the Likelihood of Undergoing Surgery among Men with Localized Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: We determined whether among men with clinically localized prostate cancer, particularly men with low risk disease, greater emotional distress increases the likelihood of undergoing surgery vs radiation or active surveillance.

Materials And Methods: Participants were 1,531 patients recruited from 2 academic and 3 community facilities (nonHispanic white 83%, nonHispanic black 11% and Hispanic 6%; low risk 36%, intermediate risk 49% and high risk 15%; choice of active surveillance 24%, radiation 27% and surgery 48%). Emotional distress was assessed shortly after diagnosis and after men made a treatment decision with the Distress Thermometer.

What Is a "Good" Treatment Decision? Decisional Control, Knowledge, Treatment Decision Making, and Quality of Life in Men with Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer.

Objective: We explored whether active patient involvement in decision making and greater patient knowledge are associated with better treatment decision-making experiences and better quality of life (QOL) among men with clinically localized prostate cancer. Localized prostate cancer treatment decision making is an advantageous model for studying patient treatment decision-making dynamics because there are multiple treatment options and a lack of empirical evidence to recommend one over the other; consequently, it is recommended that patients be fully involved in making the decision.

Methods: Men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer (N = 1529) completed measures of decisional control, prostate cancer knowledge, and decision-making experiences (decisional conflict and decision-making satisfaction and difficulty) shortly after they made their treatment decision.

Experiences of Uncertainty in Men With an Elevated PSA.

A significant proportion of men, ages 50 to 70 years, have, and continue to receive prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests to screen for prostate cancer (PCa). Approximately 70% of men with an elevated PSA level will not subsequently be diagnosed with PCa. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 men with an elevated PSA level who had not been diagnosed with PCa.