"Misfearing"--culture, identity, and our perceptions of health risks

N Engl J Med. 2014 Feb 13;370(7):595-7. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1314638.

Abstract

Despite knowing that heart disease kills more women each year than all cancers combined, most women fear breast cancer far more - and their health-related behavior reflects this difference. If our sense of risk is less about fact than about feeling, how do we adjust it?

MeSH terms

  • Breast Neoplasms / mortality
  • Breast Neoplasms / psychology*
  • Culture
  • Evidence-Based Medicine*
  • Female
  • Heart Diseases / mortality
  • Heart Diseases / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Mammography / standards
  • Peer Group
  • Risk
  • Sex Factors
  • Women's Health*