Explaining the Lackluster Impacts of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Risk Calculators

Abstract

Risk calculators are increasingly being used to promote cancer awareness and prevention. The assumption is that by providing individualized risk assessments, users will be nudged to consider their risk and perhaps undergo screening. To date, there has been limited work on the effects of colorectal cancer (CRC) risk calculators on the intention to undergo CRC screening. Little is known about the mechanism through which risk calculators might influence patient intentions. We conduct an experiment to evaluate the role of perceived susceptibility to CRC as a potential mediator that channels the impact of CRC risk calculator on participants’ intention to undergo CRC screening. We also investigate the moderating effect of gender. Our findings show that providing participants with a CRC risk calculator result influences perceived susceptibility to CRC, which in turn influences intention to undergo CRC screening. Interestingly, the CRC calculator results actually decreased perceived susceptibility. Further, we found that gender moderates this mediation relationship. Specifically, the relationship between perceived susceptibility and intention to undergo CRC screening was significant only for women. The implications of this work are that risk calculator results may actually discourage people from undergoing CRC screening and that gender differences should be considered when promoting CRC screening.