Visual Representations of Risk Enhance Long-Term Retention of Risk Information: A Randomized Trial

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Medical Psychology
• Health Communication

Background:

• Many individuals overestimate their cancer risk, leading to unnecessary anxiety and actions.
• Standard counseling offers limited, short-term improvements in cancer risk perception.
• Visualizing risk may enhance the effectiveness and longevity of counseling interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess if visual risk depictions improve cancer risk counseling efficacy.
• To determine if enhanced counseling leads to more durable risk perception correction.

Main Methods:

• A randomized study compared standard counseling to enhanced counseling with visual risk tools.
• Sixty-six participants from a Familial Cancer Program were randomized.
• Accuracy of self-perceived risk was measured 2 weeks and 6 months post-counseling.

Main Results:

• Enhanced counseling led to greater improvement in risk perception accuracy.
• Overestimation of risk by 5-fold or more decreased 3-4 times in the enhanced group at 2 weeks.
• Sustained improvement in risk perception was observed at 6 months with visual aids.

Conclusions:

• Overestimating cancer risk is common, especially in those with a family history.
• Visual representations of risk during counseling enhance the magnitude and durability of risk perception correction.
• Enhanced counseling offers a more effective approach to managing cancer risk misperceptions.