Induced versus spontaneous attendance of breast-screening tests by women

Abstract

Despite the availability of services and information, not enough women undergo breast-screening tests. A previous study showed that clinic attenders differ from nonattenders in emotions, personality, self-concept, neuroticism, psychosomatics, and health attitudes. Some of these resembled the cancer-prone personality. The present study was designed to test whether nonattenders have higher repression that supports denial and could be persuaded by positive inducements to undergo the tests. Other goals were to examine if the new sample replicates the former findings and if it differs from clinic attenders. The subjects were 210 spontaneous clinic attenders and 210 matched controls from the previous study and 46 positively induced women. They were administered questionnaires assessing emotions, personality, daydreaming, self-concept, neuroticism, somatic complaints, alexithymia, and health attitudes. The findings were that the induced sample scored higher on repressiveness, had more cancer-affected blood relatives, and responded favorably to the positive inducements. They differed from the controls in most of the variables the clinic attenders did but differed from the clinic attenders in 30% of the variables, manifesting more extreme correspondence to the cancer-prone personality. The findings indicate possibilities of drawing more individuals to undergo the tests by emphasizing the positive anxiety-reducing approach.

Personality and Gastric Cancer Screening Attendance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis from the Miyagi Cohort Study

“…11 – 15 Two studies focused on the association between neuroticism or extraversion and cancer screening visiting (attendance 1 or more times vs. no attendance). One study reported that neuroticism was not significantly associated with breast cancer screening visiting, 13 which is consistent with our results. However, we found that neuroticism score was significantly associated with gastric cancer screening compliance.…”

“…11 , 12 Personality is another factor that might influence attendance. Breast cancer screening attendees tended to have a higher score in extraversion, 13 and a lower score in neuroticism, 14 than non-attendees. 13 , 14 However, one study showed no association between personality and gastric cancer screening attendance.…”

“…It should be noted that previous studies were limited by small sample size [147 12 –756 14 ] and insufficient control for potential confounders such as socioeconomic status, 11 , 12 , 15 past history of disease, 11 – 13 , 15 and family history of cancer. 12 , 13 , 15 Moreover, these studies were conducted mainly in Western countries, 11 – 14 and it is uncertain whether their findings apply to other countries, in which the system for cancer screening and individuals’ attitudes to cancer screening differ.…”

“…12 , 13 , 15 Moreover, these studies were conducted mainly in Western countries, 11 – 14 and it is uncertain whether their findings apply to other countries, in which the system for cancer screening and individuals’ attitudes to cancer screening differ. Better understanding of the association between personality and attendance at cancer screenings could lead to an effective campaign to motivate people to attend cancer screening programs.…”

Prehospital delay and its associated psychosocial factors in patients presenting with acute appendicitis in a southwestern city in China: a single-centre prospective observational study

“…Previous studies found that the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism were significantly associated with cancer screening attendance 46–48. This study demonstrates that personality traits influence prehospital delay.…”