Mode Effects in Assessing Cancer Worry and Risk Perceptions

Alexander Persoskie, Bryan Leyva and Rebecca A. Ferrer

Medical Decision Making, 2014, vol. 34, issue 5, 583-589

Abstract: Background . Risk perceptions and worry are important determinants of health behavior. Despite extensive research on these constructs, it is unknown whether people’s self-reports of perceived risk and worry are biased by their concerns about being viewed negatively by others (social desirability). Methods . In this study, we examined whether reports of perceived risk and worry about cancer varied across survey modes differing in the salience of social desirability cues. We used data from the National Cancer Institute’s 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey, which assessed perceived cancer risk and worry in 1 of 2 survey modes: an interviewer-administered telephone survey (higher likelihood of socially desirable responding; n = 3678) and a self-administered mail survey (lower likelihood of socially desirable responding; n = 3445). Data were analyzed by regressing perceived risk and worry on survey mode and demographic factors. Results . Analyses showed no effect of survey mode on cancer risk perceptions ( B = 0.02, P = 0.55, d = 0.02). However, cancer worry was significantly higher in the self-administered mode than in the interviewer-administered mode ( B = 0.24, P

Keywords: perceived risk; worry; cancer; social desirability; survey mode (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X14527173 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:34:y:2014:i:5:p:583-589

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X14527173

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Medical Decision Making
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().