Amber M. Aeilts, Kristen M. Carpenter, Shelly R. Hovick, Lindsey Byrne, Abigail B. Shoben, Leigha Senter
While genetic testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC) is well-established in the field of medicine, family members' uptake of cascade genetic testing for known familial pathogenic variants remains low. Probands often become responsible for initiating familial communication about their testing results, and barriers to communication may include difficulty in conveying information to relatives and a lack of communication resources for probands' use. In this study, we tested a two-minute animated digital message (ADM) intervention guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) in an unselected sample to determine hypothetical individual perceptions of susceptibility and severity and behavioral intention to act on the information provided in the ADM. We recruited genetic testing naïve adults from the United States with no personal history of cancer through Amazon Mechanical Turk to participate in this study. Participants were presented a hypothetical scenario describing a relative's recent HBOC diagnosis, viewed the ADM, and answered a questionnaire assessing participants' perception of the HBM constructs in relation to the hypothetical scenario and participants' intentions to pursue cascade genetic testing, talk to a healthcare professional, or talk to family members after ADM viewing. Participants (n = 373) largely perceived HBOC as serious and believed that they could benefit from the information provided by genetic testing; 76% hypothetically intended to pursue genetic testing at a cost of $100 or less, and 90% intended to either pursue testing or talk to a healthcare provider or family members. This feasibility study in an unaffected population could mimic the experience of distant/less-engaged relatives in HBOC families after receiving unexpected information about cascade genetic testing. Most participants demonstrated behavioral intention toward cascade testing, at a rate higher than literature would suggest is typical in high-risk families, indicating that a theory-supported, simple to use intervention may be useful in clinical practice.
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