An Object Lesson: Source Determines the Relations That Trait Anxiety, Prostate Cancer Worry, and Screening Fear Hold with Prostate Screening Frequency

Abstract

Fears regarding prostate cancer and the associated screening are widespread. However, the relations between anxiety, cancer worry, and screening fear and screening behavior are complex, because anxieties stemming from different sources have different effects on behavior. In differentiating among anxieties from different sources (trait anxiety, cancer worry, and screening fear), we expected that cancer worry would be associated with more frequent screening, whereas fear of screening would be associated with less frequent screening. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 533 men (ages 45-70 years) recruited using a stratified cluster-sampling plan. Men provided information on demographic and structural variables (age, education, income, marital status, physician discussion of risk and screening, access, and insurance) and completed a set of anxiety measures (trait anxiety, cancer worry, and screening fear). As expected, two-step multiple regressions controlling for demographics, health insurance status, physician discussion, and health-care system barriers showed that prostate-specific antigen and digital rectal examination frequencies had unique associations with cancer worry and screening fear. Specifically, whereas cancer worry was associated with more frequent screening, fear of screening was associated with less frequent screening at least for digital rectal examination; trait anxiety was inconsistently related to screening. Data are discussed in terms of their implications for male screening and the understanding of how anxiety motivates health behaviors. It is suggested that understanding the source of anxiety and the manner in which health behaviors such as cancer screenings may enhance or reduce felt anxiety is a likely key to understanding the associations between anxiety and behavioral outcomes. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(7):1631 -9)

Prostate specific antigen testing is associated with men’s psychological and physical health and their healthcare utilisation in a nationally representative sample: a cross-sectional study

“…Its impact on cancer screening in men [15] and on PSA testing has received little attention, however, and results have been conflicting due to small sample sizes and different measures used [16-18]. In addition, a small number of studies have recently reported that markers of healthcare utilisation influenced whether men have PSA tests and other cancer screening [17,19,20].…”

Cognitive and Emotional Health Risk Perceptions Among People Living in Poverty

“…Although disease-related worry tends to be low to moderate in the general population for diseases such as cancer (Hay et al, 2005), it may play a larger role in risk response among individuals of low socioeconomic status, who may feel more vulnerable because they lack the time and resources to effectively manage risks. Lower income and less education are related to greater worry across a variety of health risks (Beckjord, Rutten, Arora, Moser, & Hesse, 2008;Consedine, Adjei, Ramirez, & McKiernan, 2008;Sjoberg, 1998). Among people of lower socioeconomic status, worry was shown to affect the health protective behaviors of Blacks but not Whites (Ransford, 1986) and was also related to not having health insurance, to less discussion with physicians, and to greater perceived barriers to use of the health care system (Consedine et al, 2008).…”

“…Lower income and less education are related to greater worry across a variety of health risks (Beckjord, Rutten, Arora, Moser, & Hesse, 2008;Consedine, Adjei, Ramirez, & McKiernan, 2008;Sjoberg, 1998). Among people of lower socioeconomic status, worry was shown to affect the health protective behaviors of Blacks but not Whites (Ransford, 1986) and was also related to not having health insurance, to less discussion with physicians, and to greater perceived barriers to use of the health care system (Consedine et al, 2008). In contrast, people living in poverty may exhibit a fatalism that alleviates worry if they feel there is little they can do to prevent these health risks (Niederdeppe & Levy, 2007).…”

Propiedades psicométricas del inventario de ansiedad de beck (BAI) en pacientes con cáncer

“…Se considera que la ansiedad es adaptativa si es proporcional a la amenaza, es transitoria, solo dura mientras persiste el estímulo temido y si facilita la puesta en marcha de recursos. Sin embargo, se considera desadaptativa cuando es desproporcionada a la amenaza, implica un aumento anómalo de la frecuencia, intensidad o duración de los síntomas y se mantiene en el tiempo (6,7) . La presencia de ansiedad ha sido documentada a lo largo del tratamiento oncoló-gico, en el diagnóstico (8)(9)(10) , recidiva, cuando el paciente está esperando el tratamiento (1,11) así como en estadios avanzados (10) .…”