Premium
The Effect of Genetic Counseling on Knowledge and Perceptions Regarding Risks for Breast Cancer
Author(s) -
Sagi Michal,
Kaduri Luna,
Zlotogora Joel,
Peretz Tamar
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1023/a:1022880831996
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , breast cancer , medicine , family medicine , population , genetic testing , cancer , heredity , test (biology) , genetic predisposition , risk perception , perception , gynecology , clinical psychology , psychology , environmental health , disease , paleontology , genetics , biology , neuroscience
In 1994, a clinic for cancer risk counseling was opened at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Most of the counselees have been women who had breast cancer and/or a relative with breast cancer. In order to evaluate the effect of this counseling on women's knowledge and perceptions regarding the risks for breast cancer, a questionnaire was given before and after the counseling session to 60 healthy women who came to the clinic because they have relatives with breast cancer. According to the genetic counselors' estimations, most of these women had a significantly increased risk (compared to the general population) of developing cancer. Before counseling, the women overestimated the population risk for breast cancer, the contribution of heredity to morbidity of cancer, and their own risks to get cancer. After counseling session, they gave reduced estimates, closer to the “real” ones. The subjective perceptions regarding these risks were reduced after counseling, except for the perceptions regarding their relative risks which have not changed after the counseling. About 90% of the women who came to the clinic wanted to be tested for genetic predisposition to cancer. For most of these women, the expectations that the test can rule out a genetic predisposition to cancer became more realistic after the counseling. The option to first test an affected relative was offered to all families, and a test was actually conducted in 75% of the families.