Open AccessInfluence of ‘framing effect’ on women's support for government funding of breast cancer screening
Author(s) -
Young Jane M.,
Davey Claire,
Ward Jeanette E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.2003.tb00396.x
Subject(s) - framing (construction) , breast cancer , medicine , political science , breast cancer screening , government (linguistics) , family medicine , gynecology , mammography , cancer , history , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy
Objectives: To explore whether Australian women's support for government funding of mammographic screening is influenced by ‘framing effect’. Method: Self‐administered survey of 701 women in general practice to elicit their support for government funding of each of four mammographic screening programs where benefits were expressed as a relative risk reduction (RRR); absolute risk reduction (ARR); number needed to screen (NNS) and number of cases detected for additional death avoided. Results: The proportion of respondents indicating they ‘definitely would support funding’ was significantly greater when benefits were expressed as RRR than ARR (χ 2 1 =148.4, p <0.0001), NNS (χ 2 1 =126.4, p <0.0001) or number of cases detected for additional deaths avoided (χ 2 1 =29.0, p <0.0001). 55.8% of women were not influenced by ‘framing effect’. Younger women and those with higher educational levels were more likely to be susceptible to ‘framing effect’. Conclusion: Having demonstrated its influence among these women, ‘framing effect’ should be acknowledged in future research.