Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Qualitative Health Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sanders, T.
Right arrow Articles by Sharp, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sanders, T.
Right arrow Articles by Sharp, D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Narrative Accounts of Hereditary Risk

Knowledge About Family History, Lay Theories of Disease, and "Internal" and "External" Causation

Tom Sanders

University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Rona Campbell

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Jenny Donovan

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Debbie Sharp

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

In this study, the authors sought to examine how risk information is articulated in relation to health problems that people identify as personally important and relevant. The respondents were receptive to health education messages, using different types of information in relation to its personal relevance and as a resource for managing and exercising control over perceived risk. People were not fatalistic about disease risk, as reported in previous research. Instead, they were responsive to complex public health messages and actively engaged in rationalizing their health risks, although this did not necessarily result in behavioral change. Consequently, a theoretical distinction exists between taking responsibility for evaluating complex public health messages and taking responsibility for behavioral change. The authors conclude that people's rationalizations about health risks often mirror the medical model of disease, suggesting that they are responsive to, and not fatalistic toward, such public health information.

Key Words: genetics • family history • narrative • risk perceptions • heuristics

Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 17, No. 4, 510-520 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1049732306297882
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?