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Qualitative Health Research
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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
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