Unravelling moderated mediating effects of loss aversion, information avoidance and self-efficacy on cancer fear and cancer screening.

Background: Cancer health campaigns provide information to drive early detection.

Objective: To examine the effect of cancer fear on cancer screening focusing on the mediating role of loss aversion, a concept derived from prospect theory. We hypothesize that fear initiates negative beliefs that cancer can cause the loss of way of life leading to information avoidance, and indirectly influences cancer screening intentions.