Journal article
Intuition versus cognition: a qualitative exploration of how women understand and manage their increased breast cancer risk
Louise Heiniger, Phyllis N Butow, Margaret Charles, Melanie A Price
JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE | SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS | Published : 2015
Abstract
Risk comprehension in individuals at increased familial risk of cancer is suboptimal and little is known about how risk is understood and managed by at-risk individuals who do not undergo genetic testing. We qualitatively studied these issues in 36 unaffected women from high-risk breast cancer families, including both women who had and had not undergone genetic testing. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and data analysis was guided by Grounded Theory. Risk comprehension and risk management were largely influenced by the individual's experience of coming from a high-risk family, with both tested and untested women relying heavily on their intuition. Although women's cogni..
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Grants
Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the women who took part in the interviews. We would also like to thank Lisa Vaccaro and Belinda Rahman for their feedback on the interview protocol. We wish to thank Heather Thorne, Eveline Niedermayr, all the kConFab research nurses and staff, the heads and staff of the Family Cancer Clinics, and the Clinical Follow Up Study (which has received funding from the NHMRC, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Cancer Australia, and the National Institute of Health (USA)) for their contributions to this resource, and the many families who contribute to kConFab. kConFab is supported by a grant from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and previously by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia. The kConFab Psychosocial study was funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (Project Grants 153824, 301930, 457316). Prof Phyllis Butow receives a senior principal research fellowship from the NHMRC.