Journal
PATIENT EDUCATION AND COUNSELING
Volume 55, Issue 2, Pages 265-274Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2003.11.002
Keywords
HNPCC; predictive testing; psychological distress; illness representations; health-related behavior; recall
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This paper describes the motivation, recall of cancer risks, and illness representations of 40 individuals who had a predictive test for hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) as well as the short-term impact of predictive testing by means of a semi-structured interview and self-report questionnaires. The main motives for predictive testing were early detection of cancer, knowledge of the children's risk and reduction of uncertainty. Overall, recall of cancer risks was good. Measurements of illness representations revealed low perceptions of threat of cancer and high confidence in the controllability of the disease. Distress was within normal ranges. Distress decreased significantly from pre- to post-test in non-carriers and did not in carriers. It also decreased in individuals for whom reducing uncertainty was a very important motive for the test, not in the others. Although part of the carriers did not have colonoscopies, all carriers intended to have regular colonoscopies in the future. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available