Exploring Explanatory Models of Risk in Breast Cancer Risk Counseling Discussions: NSABP/NRG Oncology Decision-Making Project 1.
Christine M Gunn, Barbara Bokhour, Victoria A Parker and 4 others
PMID 28661894WHAT IT FOUND
Women counseled about breast cancer risk explained it through family history, comparisons with others, screening, lifestyle, and medication or surgery.
Risk felt uncertain and socially evaluated, not a clear bodily state.
Key findings
01Women's risk models included etiology, symptoms, course to illness, treatment, and social comparisons, while pathophysiology did not appear.
02Women often compared their own risk with family members or others they knew who had cancer.
03Monitoring through screening was the most widely recognized and accepted way women described reducing risk.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The women were already identified as high risk and were already having a counseling visit, so this says little about women undergoing routine screening or not receiving risk counseling. The sample came from two US centers and included only English-speaking women, so the themes may not apply to other settings or languages. The counseling visits were physician-led and not standardized, so the information each woman received varied. The analysis was a secondary focus on the risk portion of interviews, and the interviewers did not specifically probe pathophysiology, so the absence of that category may reflect the method. The study reports perceptions and meaning, not whether any counseling approach changed risk-reducing behavior.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that asking about social comparisons improves risk reduction decisions. The study reports what women said in interviews, not whether counseling changes behavior.