’Patients-in-waiting’: Even the perceived risk of disease prompts intention to act

With so much focus on risk factors for disease, we are living in an era of surveillance medicine, in which the emphasis on risk blurs the lines between health and illness, argue researchers at Yale and Syracuse universities in a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Co-authors Rene Almeling, assistant professor of sociology at Yale, and Shana Kushner Gadarian, assistant professor of political science at Syracuse University, conducted a nationwide survey of American adults to determine if healthy people react to hypothetical genetic risk information by wanting to take action. Participants were asked to imagine that they faced a genetic risk for a disease. They were randomly assigned a level of risk (between 20% and 80%) and a disease: heart disease, colon cancer, or Alzheimer's disease. These are all common conditions that affect roughly equal numbers of women and men and are caused by a mix of genetic and environmental factors, but differ in age of onset and treatability. The survey allowed the researchers to recreate the uncertainty and concern posed by potential illness, and then systematically assess who wanted to take which kinds of actions in response to different levels and kinds of risks. The main finding of the study was that as the level of risk increases from 20% to 80%, people are more likely to want to take action of all kinds, including seeking information about the disease, managing risk by taking medications or undergoing surgery, consulting family members, organizing finances, and participating in community and political events.