TY - JOUR
T1 - 'That's like chopping off a finger because you're afraid it might get broken'
T2 - Disease and illness in women's views of prophylactic mastectomy
AU - Press, Nancy
AU - Reynolds, Susan
AU - Pinsky, Linda
AU - Murthy, Vinaya
AU - Leo, Michael
AU - Burke, Wylie
PY - 2005/9
Y1 - 2005/9
N2 - While data are accumulating on the efficacy of prophylactic mastectomy as a means to reduce breast cancer risk in high risk women, the effectiveness of the procedure depends on women's interest in undergoing the procedure. We report on women's responses to this surgical option as a prevention tool. Data derive from a multi-method study of women's interest in and understandings about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. The sample comprises 246 women of varying ethnicities and familial breast cancer risk from Seattle, USA. In this paper, quantitative data are presented on the sociodemographic and risk perception correlates of degree of interest in taking a genetic test for breast cancer if prophylactic mastectomy were the only treatment option. In addition, we report results of a content analysis of women's open-ended responses to the question of whether and why they could imagine undergoing prophylactic mastectomy. Our analysis of these data benefits from a central distinction in medical anthropology between the concepts of illness and disease. We suggest that while prophylactic mastectomy may prevent the "disease" of breast cancer, it may be of little interest to women who see this surgery as itself mimicking the "illness" of breast cancer.
AB - While data are accumulating on the efficacy of prophylactic mastectomy as a means to reduce breast cancer risk in high risk women, the effectiveness of the procedure depends on women's interest in undergoing the procedure. We report on women's responses to this surgical option as a prevention tool. Data derive from a multi-method study of women's interest in and understandings about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. The sample comprises 246 women of varying ethnicities and familial breast cancer risk from Seattle, USA. In this paper, quantitative data are presented on the sociodemographic and risk perception correlates of degree of interest in taking a genetic test for breast cancer if prophylactic mastectomy were the only treatment option. In addition, we report results of a content analysis of women's open-ended responses to the question of whether and why they could imagine undergoing prophylactic mastectomy. Our analysis of these data benefits from a central distinction in medical anthropology between the concepts of illness and disease. We suggest that while prophylactic mastectomy may prevent the "disease" of breast cancer, it may be of little interest to women who see this surgery as itself mimicking the "illness" of breast cancer.
KW - Breast cancer
KW - Disease and illness
KW - Genetic susceptibility
KW - Prophylactic mastectomy
KW - USA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=20444383159&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=20444383159&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.01.012
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.01.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 15955410
AN - SCOPUS:20444383159
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 61
SP - 1106
EP - 1117
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 5
ER -