Worry about ovarian cancer risk and use of screening by high-risk women: how you recruit affects what you find.

Several studies have described the characteristics of women at high-risk for ovarian cancer who are participating in registry studies and high-risk screening programs. These studies have found high-risk women to report high levels of perceived risk and worry about their risk for ovarian cancer. In contrast, population based studies have found that while high-risk women did report high levels of perceived risk, they did not report high levels of worry about their risk. In this study, we examine reports of perceived risk, worry about ovarian cancer, and use of screening by high-risk women recruited to participate in a survey from several recruitment sources. These sources include self-, physician-, and affected patient relative-referral, a fundraising mailer, and a mass mailing to a commercial mailing list. High-risk women recruited via mass mailing were less likely than those recruited via physicians or affected relatives to report either worry about their risk or use of ovarian cancer screening tests. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.