Abstract
The relationships of epidemiological (objective) risk indices, perceived disease characteristics, and cognitive heuristics to women's perceived susceptibility to breast cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis in a community sample of 312 women ages 40-86 were examined. Epidemiological indices accounted for a small to moderate proportion of the variance in perceived susceptibility. Psychological factors (perceived similarity to women who contract the target disease and perceived disease prevalence) predicted perceived susceptibility above and beyond medical risk factors. Opposite to actual risk, age correlated negatively with perceived susceptibility to all 3 diseases. Exploratory analyses suggested that perceived similarity, perceived prevalence, and absent/exempt beliefs might mediate this relationship. Confirmatory factor analyses verified that measures of absolute and direct comparative risk assess the same underlying construct of perceived susceptibility.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 247-258 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Health Psychology |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2004 |
Keywords
- Absolute risk
- Breast cancer
- Direct comparative risk
- Heart disease
- Medical risk factors
- Objective risk
- Older women
- Osteoporosis
- Perceived susceptibility
- Risk perception
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health