ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2020
Evidence that perceptions of and tolerance for medical ambiguity are distinct constructs: An analysis of nationally representative US data.
Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Psychological Impact of Ambiguous Health Messages about COVID-19.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2022Trial
- The Role of Cancer-Related Fatalistic Beliefs and Perceived Information Ambiguity in Lung Cancer Screening Uptake.Clinical journal of oncology nursing · 2026Article
- How Are Perceived Ambiguity and Risk Beliefs Related? Evidence From Longitudinal and Daily Diary Data.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- Evolution of ambiguity tolerance research a scientometric and bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Uncertainty in healthcare and health decision making: Five methodological and conceptual research recommendations from an interdisciplinary team.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2023Review
- Elements of Suffering in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Experience of Loss, Grief, Stigma, and Trauma in the Severely and Very Severely Affected.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Evidence that perceptions of and tolerance for medical ambiguity are distinct constructs: An analysis of nationally representative US data.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020Article
- Fact-checking of health information on social networking sites: The moderating role of gender.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMedical information is often conflicting and consequently perceived as ambiguous. There are individual differences both in how much people perceive ambiguity and in their tolerance for such ambiguity. Little is known about how these constructs are related to each other and with other beliefs.
objectiveTo examine the association between (a) perceived medical ambiguity, (b) tolerance for medical ambiguity and (c) their associations with various medical and cancer-specific judgement and decision-making correlates. METHOD AND
participantsWe conducted secondary data analyses using the cross-sectional, nationally representative Health Information National Trends Survey 4, Cycle 4 (n = 3,433, 51.0% female, M MAIN VARIABLES STUDIED: Perceived medical ambiguity, tolerance for medical ambiguity, cancer perceptions, health-care experiences and preferences, and information-seeking styles and beliefs.
resultsPerceived medical ambiguity and tolerance for medical ambiguity were statistically independent. Higher perceived ambiguity was associated with lower perceived cancer preventability, lower reliance on doctors, lower perceived health and information-seeking self-efficacy, lower perceived quality of the cancer information-seeking process, and greater cancer information avoidance. Lower tolerance for ambiguity was associated with lower cancer worry, lower trust in doctors, lower likelihood of seeking health information, and lower engagement in medical research. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsPerceived medical ambiguity and tolerance for medical ambiguity seem to be distinct constructs. Findings have implications for how people make medical decisions when they perceive and prefer to avoid conflicting medical information.
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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.