A recent study conducted by the American Cancer Society indicates that Americans have many misconceptions about cancer and cancer risk factors.
This study surveyed 957 adults who had never had cancer and asked them to reply true, false, or uncertain to twelve statements about cancer. Surprisingly, 39% of those polled believed pollution was a greater risk factor for lung cancer than cigarettes, while 19% were unsure. In reality, smoking is responsible for about 87% of all lung cancer deaths and is a much greater risk factor than pollution. Another disturbing result was that 16.2% of those surveyed believed that long-term smokers could not reduce their risk of lung cancer by quitting. In fact, the smartest and safest way to protect against developing lung cancer is to quit smoking. No matter how long or how much a person has smoked, quitting will decrease the risk of cancer (and the residual risk of having been a smoker is higher the longer the individual smoked).
Another common misconception held by 67.7% of respondents was that the risk of dying from cancer in the U.S. is growing. In reality, the American Cancer Society has reported declines in cancer death rates for the past two years.
In total, five of the twelve misconceptions were believed to be true by at least one-quarter of those surveyed. In addition, respondents who were male, older, non-white, less educated, and of lower income were most likely to have inaccurate beliefs about cancer.
Another surprising finding from the study was that those people who considered themselves "very informed" about cancer were more likely to have misconceptions about cancer risks than those who considered themselves less knowledgeable on the subject. These findings suggest that people have many false notions about cancer. Even those who try to be informed are being distracted by hypothetical threats and scares. As Dr. Ted Gansler, director of medical content at the American Cancer Society notes, the take-home message from this study is that people need to make sure they are getting their information from reliable sources.
Patricia Ludwig is a research intern at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).
See also: ACSH's report Helping Smokers Quit: A Role for Smokeless Tobacco?
