Relationships among breast cancer concern, risk perceptions, and interest in genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility among African-American women with and without a family history of breast cancer

There has been very little research exploring the relationships among perce ptions of, and concern about, getting breast cancer and interest in genetic testing for breast cancer among African-American women with and without a family history of breast cancer. This study explored these issues among 130 and 136 African-American women with and without a family history of breast cancer, respectively. Women with a family history reported having greater perceived breast cancer risks and concerns than women without a family hist ory of breast cancer. Knowledge of breast cancer risk factors was very poor and correlated weakly with perceptions of risk and concern. In attribution al analyses, acknowledging one's family history status was the strongest pr edictor of perceived risk only among women with a family history. Women wit h a family history of breast cancer expressed greater interest in genetic t esting for breast cancer susceptibility than women without a family history , although interest in testing was high overall. Increasing perceptions of breast cancer risks and concerns were related to a greater interest in gene tic testing, and this relationship was not moderated by family history stat us. Attributions of risk and knowledge of breast cancer risk factors genera lly were not related to interest in testing. Overall, these results suggest that: (a) African-American women with a family history are more concerned about and do recognize their greater risk of breast cancer; (b) knowledge o f risk factors and attributions of risk are not directly related to interes t in genetic testing; and (c) concerns, rather than beliefs about one's ris k, are more powerfully related to interest in genetic testing, independent of family history status.