Women volunteers with or without a first-degree relative with breast cancer (FDR) were compared on several measures. Relative to the comparison group, women in the FDR group had more negative attitudes about breast cancer (including more anxiety about breast cancer), viewed their risk for getting breast cancer as greater (although they underestimated the actual risk), and were more likely to engage in appropriate screening behavior. A high percentage of women in both groups stated that they would want to have a genetic test for breast cancer if it were generally available.

The agreement of classifications yielded from two instruments used to assess children's Type A-Type B behavior, the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) and Hunter-Wolf (HWolf), was evaluated with a sample of rural children from the southern United States. Fifth grade children (N = 276) served as subjects. MYTH and HWolf scores were found to be only weakly correlated and the agreement of Type A-Type B classifications occurred at a rate only slightly above chance. To assess the psychometric properties of the instruments, both were subjected to factor analysis and reliability/internal consistency estimates were obtained and compared with previous results. A factor structure remarkably similar to that of previous reports was found for the MYTH but not the HWolf. The results closely parallel those of another recent report and provide further support for the recommendation that these instruments should not be considered interchangeable measures of Type A behavior and that when multiple measures cannot be employed for research, the investigator should use the MYTH. Caution is indicated in interpreting scores of either measure, however, since neither has yet been shown to relate to later development of coronary heart disease.

Subjects (N = 202) read one of four descriptions of a seriously ill woman and then completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) as they thought she would complete it. The four descriptions were identical except that the patient was described alternately as having breast cancer, lung cancer, heart attack, or severe burns over her chest area. Data were analyzed in terms of perceiver gender and patient diagnosis. Women respondents perceived the patient as more angry or hostile and as having more total mood disturbance than men respondents. Breast cancer patients were perceived as more confused or bewildered than lung cancer patients. Cancer patients were generally perceived as more fatigued and confused than noncancer patients. Results are discussed in terms of their utility to health caregivers, who need to be aware that such biases may possibly exist in the patients themselves and in their support networks, and they may ultimately be detrimental to the patient's recovery.

No abstract

Women volunteers (N = 32) learning breast self-examination (BSE) in one of several small group workshops were asked to practice BSE on a monthly basis and reported BSE practice for the following 6 months. Each workshop was randomly assigned to one of three methods of reporting subsequent instances of BSE: (a) retrospective reporting in which they were called by the experimenter and asked how many times they performed BSE; (b) monthly written reports, in which they mailed in a card after each month's practice of BSE; and (c) an oil-and-tissue method in which, in addition to the card, they mailed in a tissue that they had used to blot oil used as a lubricant in BSE. Rates of self-reported BSE for the three methods were compared, showing no differences between the oil-and-tissue method and the monthly written report method, with rates for both methods significantly lower than for the retrospective report method. It was concluded that the monthly report method provides the same information as the oil-and-tissue method, without its awkwardness and expense, and thus seems the preferred method of self-report in BSE studies.