Abstract

In this study, we investigate the relationships among worries about environmental health risks, genetic and behavioural causal beliefs about cancer prevention, perceived cancer risk, and cancer fatalism based on the concepts of macrosocial worry and affect heuristic. Nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 4 Cycle 2 dataset was employed. We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses by employing SPSS Macro for Probing Interactions in OLS and Logistic Regression. According to the results of this study, worry about environmental risks was positively and significantly associated with both genetic and behavioural causal beliefs. The more individuals worry about environmental risks, the less fatalistic beliefs they have. Behavioural causal beliefs negatively and significantly influenced cancer risk perceptions as well as cancer fatalism, moderating the associations between genetic causal beliefs, cancer risk perceptions, and cancer fatalism. Moreover, worry about environmental risks was found to be a mediator linking cancer causal beliefs and cancer fatalism. The results of moderation tests suggest socio-economic disparities exist in cancer and environmental risk perceptions as well as causal beliefs related to cancer.

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