Influence of 'framing effect' on women's support for government funding of breast cancer screening.
OBJECTIVE
To explore whether Australian women's support for government funding of mammographic screening is influenced by 'framing effect'.


METHODS
Self-administered survey of 701 women in general practice to elicit their support for government funding of each of four mammographic screening programs where benefits were expressed as a relative risk reduction (RRR); absolute risk reduction (ARR); number needed to screen (NNS) and number of cases detected for additional death avoided.


RESULTS
The proportion of respondents indicating they 'definitely would support funding' was significantly greater when benefits were expressed as RRR than ARR (chi 2(1) = 148.4, p < 0.0001), NNS (chi 2(1) = 126.4, p < 0.0001) or number of cases detected for additional deaths avoided (chi 2(1) = 29.0, p < 0.0001). 55.8% of women were not influenced by 'framing effect'. Younger women and those with higher educational levels were more likely to be susceptible to 'framing effect'.


CONCLUSIONS
Having demonstrated its influence among these women, 'framing effect' should be acknowledged in future research.
Young
Jane M
JM
Surgical Outcomes Research Centre, Central Sydney Area Health Service, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales. jyoung@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
Davey
Claire
C
Ward
Jeanette E
JE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005380:Financing, Government; D006076:Government; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000523:psychology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population