title: Measurement of psychological factors associated with genetic testing for hereditary breast, ovarian and colon cancers.
abstract: Despite numerous individual studies of psychological factors (depression, anxiety, distress) related to genetic testing for inherited cancer syndromes (CGT), there has been no systematic review of the psychological factors are measured among individuals at increased risk for hereditary breast, ovarian, or colon cancer. Our review provides an analysis of psychological factors in studies of CGT and discusses the instruments most commonly used to measure them. We performed a literature search using three major OVID databases from 1993 to January 2003. In the 19 studies that met our inclusion criteria, the most commonly assessed psychological factors were distress, anxiety, and depression. These factors were most often measured by the impact of event scale (IES), the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), and the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies and Depression scale (CES-D), respectively. Our results show deficits in the existing body of literature on psychological factors associated with CGT including limited documentation of psychometrics and variability in instrumentation.
authors.affiliation: H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, 12902 Magnolia Drive LCS-FOW, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. vadapast@moffitt.usf.edu
authors.forename: Susan T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Vadaparampil
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ropka
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Stefanek
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological