The inclusion of age-matched GP controls provided a reference population against which to compare these factors. A striking and highly significant difference was apparent between counselled women and the GP control group in terms of cancer-specific distress, suggesting that high-risk women experience breast cancer-related worries that are not assuaged by genetic counselling.
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Familial breast cancer: a controlled study of risk perception, psychological morbidity and health beliefs in women attending for genetic counselling.
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The sentences
The inclusion of age-matched GP controls provided a reference population against which to compare these factors. A striking and highly significant difference was apparent between counselled women and the GP control group in terms of cancer-specific distress, suggesting that high-risk women experience breast cancer-related worries that are not assuaged by genetic counselling.
A recent prospective study of risk communication (Evans et al., 1994) again provides data that a high proportion of women fail to recall personal risk information accurately or corresponding general population figures one year after attending genetic counselling. Although the majority of cases were unable to recall their lifetime risk precisely, a marginally significant association between cases' perceived lifetime risk (expressed as a 1 in ... probability) and the geneticist's figures suggests that their estimations were not always far off the mark.