When asked to estimate the lifetime risk of breast cancer, 89 percent of women overestimated their risk, with an average estimate of 46 percent more than three times the actual risk of 13 percent, according to a study by University of Michigan Health System researchers.
"Breast cancer is so commonly in the news, and most of us can think of friends or relatives who have been diagnosed with it. That leads us to overestimate how common it really is. We forget that we know a lot of people with breast cancer because we know a lot of people," says senior study author Peter Ubel, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and director of the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine.
Results of the study appear in the June issue of the journal Patient Education and Counseling.
In the study, researchers surveyed 356 women. Half the women were asked to estimate the average woman's lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and half were not asked for an estimate. Both groups then received information on breast cancer risk.
The group that did not estimate risk beforehand was asked whether the 13 percent risk was higher or lower than they had expected. Only 37 percent said the actual risk was lower than they had expected compared to 89 percent of women in the other group who initially thought the risk was much higher.
The researchers then asked women from both groups how anxious or relieved the information made them and whether they thought a 13 percent risk was high or low.
The women who did not give an estimate first were more likely to feel anxious about the breast cancer risk information, 25 percent vs. 12 percent of women who gave an estimate first. At the same time, twice as many women who gave an esti
'"/>
7-Jun-2005