Beliefs and beyond: what can we learn from qualitative studies of lay people's understandings of cancer risk?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Clinicians and public health professionals are centrally concerned with mediating risk. However, people often resist the risk-related information that is communicated to them by experts, or have their own models of risk that conflict with expert views. Quantitative studies have clearly demonstrated the importance of health beliefs and various cognitive and emotional processes in shaping risk perception. More recently, a growing body of qualitative research has emerged, exploring lay conceptualizations, experiences and constructions of cancer risk. To date, this literature has not been synthesized.

Objective

We report the findings of a synthesis of qualitative literature regarding the ways in which lay people construct and experience cancer risk.

Design

We i

SUBMITTER: Lipworth WL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5060527 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature