Erika A. Waters|Helen W. Sullivan|Wendy Nelson|Bradford W. Hesse
What Is My Cancer Risk? How Internet-Based Cancer Risk Assessment Tools Communicate Individualized Risk Estimates to the Public: Content Analysis
National Cancer Institute|National Cancer Institute|National Cancer Institute|National Cancer Institute
internetbased cancer risk assessment tools potential inform public cancer risk promote riskreducing behaviors however poorly communicated information websites may result unintended adverse health outcomesthis study examined whether 1 internetbased cancer risk assessment tools use risk communication formats facilitate comprehension reduce bias identified empirical literature 2 use formats varies website affiliation 3 websites provided information necessary evaluate quality risk estimatea content analysis internetbased cancer risk assessment tools conducted terms calculate cancer risk cancer risk calculator estimate cancer risk assess cancer risk cancer risk assessment searched using three search engines identified 47 risk assessment tools coded according standardized criteria calculated simple frequencies coding categories performed crosstabulations conduct formal statistical analysis due small cell sizesuse risk communication formats facilitate comprehension reduce bias varied widely eg 30 websites 1447 provided absolute comparative risk information 83 3947 provided safety messages use formats facilitate comprehension varied website affiliation communication strategy eg 83 112 websites affiliated health care industry provided absolute comparative risk information 83 56 websites affiliated governmental organization 53 2547 websites provided information statistical model peerreviewed literature used calculate risk estimateinternetbased cancer risk assessment tools varied use risk communication formats facilitate comprehension reduce bias formats difficult understand may cause people misperceive cancer risk consequently take inappropriate action