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Abstract
Based on the cognitive-social health information processing model, we identified cognitive profiles of women at risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Prior to genetic counselling, participants (N = 171) completed a study questionnaire concerning their cognitive and affective responses to being at genetic risk. Using cluster analysis, four cognitive profiles were generated: (a) high perceived risk/low coping; (b) low value of screening/high expectancy of cancer; (c) moderate perceived risk/moderate efficacy of prevention/low informativeness of test result; and (d) high efficacy of prevention/high coping. The majority of women in Clusters One, Two and Three had no personal history of cancer, whereas Cluster Four consisted almost entirely of women affected with cancer. Women in Cluster One had the highest number of affected relatives and experienced higher levels of distress than women in the other three clusters. These results highlight the need to consider the psychological profile of women undergoing genetic testing when designing counselling interventions and messages.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by NIH grants R01 CA104979, 5P01 CA057586, and the Fox Chase Cancer Center Behavioral Research Core Facility P30 CA06927, as well as Department of Defense grants DAMD 17-01-01-1-0238 and DAMD 17-02-1-0382. We are indebted to John Scarpato and Mary Anne Ryan for their technical assistance.
Notes
Notes
1. Intrusive ideation, perceived risk, and worry have been used in earlier publications as baseline covariates (Miller et al., 2005; Roussi et al., Citation2010).
2. The same analysis was conducted including only women affected with breast cancer and unaffected women. The cluster analysis results were essentially equivalent.