“Couldn't you have done just as well without the screening?”

‘It can’t do any harm’: A qualitative exploration of accounts of participation in preventive health checks

“…Following Whyte (2005), we argue that participation in a preventive health check can be seen as an attempt to manage uncertainties about risks of chronic diseases, as participants in the study reported that they attended the health check to validate their health status and current lifestyle. Other studies have shown that screenings confirmed participants' feelings about being healthy and therefore could produce a sense of false security (Nielsen, Dyhr, Lauritzen, & Malterud, 2009;Sachs, 1995). Similarly, a British study exploring individuals' decisions to participate in health checks found that the reasons for participating included potential reassurance that the participants were not at risk of chronic disease (Burgess et al, 2015).…”

“…Some studies have demonstrated that screenings could produce a sense of false security (Nielsen et al, 2009;Sachs, 1995). Furthermore, two studies examining women's experiences of being recalled after a routine preventive mammography (Solbjor, Forsmo, Skolbekken, & Saetnan, 2011) and women diagnosed with interval breast cancer (Solbjor, Skolbekken, Saetnan, Hagen, & Forsmo, 2012) found that, while these groups of women had different and versatile experiences, overall, both studies indicate that preventive health checks and screening programmes could create uncertainties in peoples' lives by among other things generating distress, anxiety and doubts about mammography screenings.…”

“Am I carrier?” The patient's lived experience of thrombophilia genetic screening and its outcome

“…This insight appears interesting, not only because it suggests shifting the debate from the psychological consequences of receiving a screening outcome (Broadstock, Michie, & Marteau, 2000 ; Levine, 1991 ; McCann et al, 2009 ; Michie et al, 2002 ; Nielsen, Dyhr, Lauritzen, & Malterud, 2004 , 2009 ; Stoate, 1989 ) to the meanings attributed to the screening experience itself, but also because it suggests interesting clinical implications that need to be considered to improve health provider handling of requests to patients for thrombophilia testing. In this regard it would be interesting to verify whether a similar experience can be detected in relation to genetic screening for other diseases or if this is typical only of the genetic test for thrombophilia.…”

“…For instance, of 127 people receiving negative results following predictive genetic testing for familial adenomotous polyposis (FAP), the more anxious people were about the chance of developing FAP, the more likely they were to perceive the test results as uncertain and threatening (Michie et al, 2002 ). In a recent study involving people without a high cardiovascular risk score, participants in good health perceived negative test results as a way to eliminate worries and confirm their lifestyle (Nielsen, Dyhr, Lauritzen, & Malterud, 2009 ). Similar evidences, but with a very different perception by patients, were achieved in a study exploring the effect of genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolemia which demonstrated that patients receiving a negative result may “feel in limbo” (Hilgart, Mercer, & Thirlaway, 2013 ).…”

“…Only a deep understanding of the subjective meanings that patients attribute not only to their clinical situation but also to the fact of undergoing a genetic test to understand the nature of their disease can orient more ecological and efficient medical practices and communication strategies. Furthermore, studies conducted so far on the experience of thrombophilia screening have focused only on the lived experience of patients who received a positive outcome to the genetic test (Moore, Norman, Harris, & Makris, 2008 ), whereas previous studies on other issues have shown the importance of considering the psychological and behavioral effects of a negative result; for example, in cardiovascular risk (Nielsen et al, 2009 ) or the genetic test for familial adenomatous polyposis (Michie et al, 2002 ). In a previous qualitative study by our group (Vegni, Leone, Graffigna, Faioni, & Moja, 2013 ) about the way patients perceive the thrombophilia test, results suggested that a complex view of the test may be the result of an intricate and perhaps peculiar conception of an “illness of the blood”: not all the interviewees had a thrombotic event, but they all perceived a problem in the blood, materialized by the test.…”