Past research has demonstrated that news coverage of cancer research, and scientific research generally, rarely contains discourse-based hedging, including caveats, limitations, and uncertainties. In a multiple message experiment (k = 4 news stories, N = 1082), the authors examined whether hedging shaped the perceptions of news consumers. The results revealed that participants were significantly less fatalistic about cancer (p = .039) and marginally less prone to nutritional backlash (p = .056) after exposure to hedged articles. Participants exposed to articles mentioning a second researcher (unaffiliated with the present study) exhibited greater trust in medical professions (p = .001). The findings provide additional support for the inclusion of discourse-based hedging in cancer news coverage and suggest that news consumers will use scientific uncertainty in illness representations.

Key PointsQuestionWhat is the association between first flavored use of a given tobacco product and subsequent tobacco use, including progression of tobacco use, among US youth (aged 12-17 years), young adults (aged 18-24 years), and adults (aged ≥25 years)?FindingsIn this cohort study of 11 996 youth and 26 447 adults who participated in waves 1 and 2 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, most youth and young adult new tobacco users first tried a flavored product. First use of flavored tobacco products was positively associated with subsequent product use compared with first use of a nonflavored product.MeaningFirst use of flavored tobacco products may place youth and adults at risk of subsequent tobacco use.

Objectives To determine the relationship between long-term prostate cancer survivors’ symptom burden and information needs. Subjects/patients and methods We used population-based data from the Michigan Prostate Cancer Survivor Study (n=2,499). We examined unadjusted differences in long-term information needs according to symptom burden and performed multivariable logistic regression to examine symptom burden and information needs adjusting for patient characteristics. Results High symptom burden was reported across all domains (sexual 44.4%, urinary 14.4%, vitality 12.7%, bowel 8.4%, emotional 7.6%) with over half of respondents (56%) reporting they needed more information. Top information needs involved recurrence, relationships, and long-term effects. Prostate cancer survivors with high symptom burden more often searched for information regardless of domain (p<0.05). High sexual burden was associated with greater need for information about relationships (OR=2.05; 95% CI 1.54–2.72) and long-term effects (OR=1.60; 95% CI 1.23–2.07). High bowel burden was associated with greater information need for long-term effects (OR=2.28; 95% CI 1.43–3.63). Conclusions Long-term prostate cancer survivors with high symptom burden need more supportive information. Tailoring information to these needs may be an efficient approach to support the growing population of long-term prostate cancer survivors.

Objectives-Past research has suggested that dispositional cancer worry may be a key predictor of health behavior. The present study examined seven measures of dispositional cancer worry to see if they were significantly related (convergent validity), significantly different from similar but distinct traits (divergent validity), and capable of predicting cancer-relevant outcomes (predictive validity).Methods-489 undergraduate students completed a survey measuring dispositional worry, dispositional cancer worry, and perceived cancer risk.Results-Factor analysis identified four underlying dimensions that explained 67.3% of the variance in dispositional cancer worry: severity (42.8%), frequency (12.3%), psychological reactance (6.9%), and worry impact (5.3%). Four existing measures of dispositional cancer worry were found to represent each of these dimensions. In general, dispositional cancer worry measures were highly correlated with one another and only moderately correlated with measures of dispositional worry, supporting strong convergent and divergent validity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that dispositional cancer worry measures predicted significant variance in cancer-relevant outcomes above and beyond dispositional worry. Conclusions-The results of this study support the notion that dispositional cancer worry and dispositional worry are distinct constructs. Furthermore, two dimensions of dispositional cancer worry (severity and frequency) seemed to have the strongest convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. Keywordscancer; worry; dispositional; scale validation; oncology Worry is a cognitive activity wherein an individual experiences a series of negative thoughts about an uncertain issue (Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & Dupree, 1983). Situational or state-based worry is often triggered by an event and it is sometimes followed by attempts at problem-solving; for example, worrying about an approaching tax deadline could facilitate thinking about how an individual might reorganize his or her life to complete the necessary tax documents. However, worry can also be a long-term or routine activity directed at ambiguous or extremely distant events. When a person thinks in this way they are said to be prone to dispositional or trait-based worry. Dispositional worry is unfocused, vague, and sometimes indicative of poor problem solving (Pruzinsky & Borkovec, 1990; al., 1983;Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1991). Conceptually, a person could engage in dispositional worry about life in general or about a specific event or issue (e.g., dispositional cancer worry).Newly diagnosed cancer patients likely experience significant worry (i.e., state-based cancer worry), but even individuals who do not have cancer in their lives can dwell on the disease (i.e., trait-based cancer worry). The former has the potential to influence decision-making about the stimulus (Lehto & Cimprich, 2009), but the latter is of interest to researchers because past studies have suggested that this type of thinking may be rel...

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