ArticleBritish journal of cancer2015
Smoking is associated with pessimistic and avoidant beliefs about cancer: results from the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Trial
- Colorectal Cancer Screening in Black and Latino Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: Associations with Modifiable Health Behaviors and Sociodemographic Factors.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Cigarette and E-Cigarette Use in Greater Philadelphia: Proportion of Use Compared to National Data and Local Predictors of Smoking Status.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Factors Associated with Adherence to Recommended Colorectal Surveillance Intervals in Lynch Syndrome.Cancers · 2026Article
- Survival among US adults with post-cancer-diagnosis cigarette smoking cessation.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- Adherence to Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Among Age-Eligible US Women: Findings From NHIS 2021.Cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Prevalence and associated factors of mammography uptake among the women aged 45 years and above: policy implications from the longitudinal ageing study in India wave I survey.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Facilitators and barriers to help-seeking behavior for symptoms in patients with lung cancer in China-a qualitative study.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Acceptability of a carbon monoxide monitoring feature of a smoking cessation mobile application: a virtual focus group study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Development and psychometric testing of the self-regulatory questionnaire for lung cancer screening (SRQ-LCS).Psychology & health · 2022Article
- Disparities in Colorectal Cancer Screening Practices in a Midwest Urban Safety-Net Healthcare System.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2021Article
- The person behind the nodule: a narrative review of the psychological impact of lung cancer screening.Translational lung cancer research · 2021Review
- Out of reach? Correlates of cervical cancer underscreening in women with varying levels of healthcare interactions in a United States integrated delivery system.Preventive medicine · 2021Article
- Healthcare Access, Utilization, and Preventive Health Behaviors by Eligibility for Lung Cancer Screening.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2021Article
- To do or not to do - a survey study on factors associated with participating in the Danish screening program for colorectal cancer.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Article
- Development of Protocol for Korean Lung Cancer Screening Project (K-LUCAS) to Evaluate Effectiveness and Feasibility to Implement National Cancer Screening Program.Cancer research and treatment · 2019Article
- Article
- Cancer Screening Patterns Among Current, Former, and Never Smokers in the United States, 2010-2015.JAMA network open · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSmoking cessation is the key cancer prevention behaviour for smokers; nonetheless, smokers can still benefit from earlier diagnosis of cancer. However, fewer smokers participate in screening despite their increased risk, which may reflect different beliefs about cancer.
methodsA UK population-representative sample of ⩾50 year-olds (n=6965) was surveyed using the Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer measure. These analyses examine six items on cancer beliefs (e.g., 'cancer can often be cured'), and four on help-seeking barriers (e.g., 'I would be too embarrassed').
resultsSmokers were more likely to hold pessimistic cancer beliefs than never-smokers or former-smokers on four of six items. For example, 34% agreed 'a cancer diagnosis is a death sentence', compared with 24% of non/former-smokers (P<0.001). More smokers (18%) than non/former-smokers (11%) would not want to know if they had cancer (P<0.01). The only barrier to symptomatic help-seeking differing by smoking status was 'worry about what the doctor might find' (36% vs 28%, P<0.01). Associations were independent of demographics, self-rated health and cancer experience.
conclusionsSmokers held more pessimistic and avoidant beliefs about cancer, which could deter early-detection behaviour. A better understanding of these beliefs is needed to increase engagement in early diagnosis by this high-risk group.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.