ArticlePsychology & health2018
Does psychosocial stress exacerbate avoidant responses to cancer information in those who are afraid of cancer? A population-based survey among older adults in England.
Article in Psychology & health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prevalence and predictors of medical information avoidance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Acceptability of de-intensified screening for women at low risk of breast cancer: a randomised online experimental survey.BMC cancer · 2024Trial
- The prostate cancer electronic health (eHealth) literacy instrument: a tool for eHealth design and patient communication.BJU international · 2026Article
- Healthcare Information Avoidance in the Context of Caring for a Child with a Serious Illness.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Post-traumatic growth experiences of breast cancer patients and spouses: a dyadic qualitative study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Strategies to correct vaccine misinformation on social media for pregnant women and the impact of vaccine skepticism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Research on health information avoidance behavior and influencing factors of cancer patients-an empirical analysis based on structural equation modeling.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Examining the Role of Information Behavior in Linking Cancer Risk Perception and Cancer Worry to Cancer Fatalism in China: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Research on the Process and Influencing Factors of Online Diabetes Information Users' Avoidance Behavior: A Qualitative Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- What motivates Chinese consumers to avoid information about the COVID-19 pandemic?: The perspective of the stimulus-organism-response model.Information processing & management · 2021Article
- Attitudes towards genetic testing and information: does parenthood shape the views?Journal of community genetics · 2020Article
- Cancer worry frequency vs. intensity and self-reported colorectal cancer screening uptake: A population-based study.Journal of medical screening · 2019Article
- Moving beyond categorization to understand affective influences on real world health decisions.Social and personality psychology compass · 2019Article
- Combined Effects of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Cancer Beliefs, Cognitions, and Emotions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Spanish-Speaking Hispanic Patients' Information-Sharing Preferences During Hospitalization: An Exploratory Pilot Study.Journal of participatory medicine · 2018Article
- Understanding middle-aged and older adults' first associations with the word "cancer": A mixed methods study in England.Psycho-oncology · 2018Article
- Coping Strategies among Malaysian Women with Recurrent Ovarian Cancer: A Qualitative Study.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursingArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveCommunication of cancer information is an important element of cancer control, but cancer fear may lead to information avoidance, especially when coping is low. We examined the association between cancer fear and cancer information avoidance, and tested whether this was exacerbated by psychosocial stress.
designCross-sectional survey of 1258 population-based adults (58-70 years) in England.
main outcome measuresCancer fear (intensity and frequency), perceived psychosocial stress and cancer information avoidance. Control variables were age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and education.
resultsA quarter (24%) of respondents avoided cancer information. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed main effects of psychosocial stress (OR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.07-1.29) and cancer fear: cancer information avoidance was lowest in those with no cancer fear (13%), followed by those with moderate (24%; OR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.49-3.12), and high cancer fear (35%; OR = 3.90, 95% CI: 2.65-5.73). In the adjusted model, the interaction between cancer fear and stress was significant (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.004-1.29, p < .05): 40% of those with high fear/high stress avoided cancer information compared with 29% with high fear/low stress.
conclusionCancer fear and psychosocial stress interact to produce disengagement with cancer-related information, highlighting the importance of affective processes to cancer control efforts.
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