Distrust, predisposition to use health services and breast cancer screening: results from a multicultural community-based survey.

Purpose: To examine whether and how distrust of the health system and predisposition to use healthcare services influence frequency of mammograms and Clinical Breast Exams (CBEs).

Methods: A community-based survey recruited 184 women (age 47+/-12); 49% were college-educated, 77% had health insurance, and 57% were non-white. Distrust was measured with a four-item scale (Cronbach alpha=0.

Why some women have an optimistic or a pessimistic bias about their breast cancer risk: experiences, heuristics, and knowledge of risk factors.

Perceived risk to a health problem is formed by inferential rules called heuristics and by comparative judgments that assess how one's risk compares to the risk of others. The purpose of this cross-sectional, community-based survey was to examine how experiences with breast cancer, knowledge of risk factors, and specific heuristics inform risk judgments for oneself, for friends/peers, and comparative judgments for breast cancer (risk friends/peers - risk self). We recruited an English-speaking, multicultural (57% nonwhite) sample of 184 middle-aged (47 + or - 12 years old), well-educated women.

Underestimation of breast cancer risk: influence on screening behavior.

Purpose/objectives: To describe perceived breast cancer risk, identify the percentage of women with inaccurate risk perceptions, and examine the influence of perceived and objective risk on screening behavior.

Design: Descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional.

Setting: Community settings in a metropolitan area on the western coast of the United States.

Perceived prejudice in healthcare and women's health protective behavior.

Background: The literature documents significant claims of experienced prejudice in healthcare delivery in relationship to ethnicity, race, female gender, and homosexual orientation. Studies link perceived prejudice with negative healthcare outcomes, particularly in hypertension, heart disease, depression, and human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Objectives: To examine the impact of perceived prejudice in healthcare delivery on women's early cancer detection behavior and women's decisions to seek care for illness symptoms.

The cognitive structuring of patient delay in breast cancer.

The reasons women give for delaying diagnosis of breast cancer symptoms are numerous and striking. Yet none prove reliable as indicators of those who will delay, and most women overcome all barriers to seek immediate diagnosis. This study looks more deeply into the reasoning of symptomatic women sustaining confidence in a decision to delay diagnosis of self-discovered breast symptoms.

Perceived breast cancer risk: heuristic reasoning and search for a dominance structure.

Studies suggest that people construct their risk perceptions by using inferential rules called heuristics. The purpose of this study was to identify heuristics that influence perceived breast cancer risk. We examined 11 interviews from women of diverse ethnic/cultural backgrounds who were recruited from community settings.

Predictors of perceived breast cancer risk and the relation between perceived risk and breast cancer screening: a meta-analytic review.

Background: Perceived risk is a principal variable in theoretical models that attempt to predict the adoption of health-protective behaviors.

Methods: This meta-analysis synthesizes findings from 42 studies, identified in PubMed and PsycInfo from 1985 onward. Studies examined demographic and psychological variables as predictors of perceived breast cancer risk and the relationship between perceived risk and breast cancer screening.

The J-Delay scale: a measure of the likelihood of patient delay in breast cancer.

Patient delay in seeking treatment for breast cancer is a major contributing factor to morbidity and mortality. No instruments have previously been developed to predict the likelihood of patient delay. This report describes the development and testing of the J-Delay scale, designed to estimate a woman's risk of making the judgment to delay versus to seek immediate evaluation of self-discovered breast symptoms that might signal breast cancer.

Perceived risk of breast cancer: influence of heuristic thinking.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of heuristic reasoning on women's perceived risk for developing breast cancer, and to test for an expected bias in the direction of optimism that is predicted by recent research on human cognition.

Description Of Study: In total, 770 women recruited in community settings were surveyed regarding cancer screening behavior and their perceived risk of developing breast cancer.

Results: Most women perceived their risk of breast cancer to be lower than that of other women (3:1), confirming the expected bias toward optimism, and this finding was not attributable to the personality trait of optimism.

The influence of social support on breast cancer screening in a multicultural community sample.

Purpose/objectives: To examine the relationship between women's reported social support and their adherence to recommended breast cancer screening guidelines.

Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Community women's organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

The self-reported likelihood of patient delay in breast cancer: new thoughts for early detection.

Background: Delayed presentation of self-discovered breast symptoms influences stage of cancer at diagnosis and decreases breast cancer survival.

Methods: A total of 699 asymptomatic women (black, white, and Latino), recruited in community settings and stratified by age, income, and educational level, were surveyed for their likelihood to delay (J-Delay scale) in the event of a breast symptom discovery. Models of likelihood were tested with logistic regression analyses.