Impact of Perceived Cancer Risk on the Cancer Screening Rate in the General Korean Population: Results from the Korean Health Panel Survey Data

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the perception of cancer risk and likelihood of having undergone cancer screening. Materials and Methods: We used data from the Korean Health Panel Survey from December 2011 onward. Of 3,390 patients who visited a hospital during the previous year, we included data from 2,466 individuals; 924 samples were excluded due to missing data. Logistic regression analysis and the chi square test were used to investigate the association between perceived cancer risk and the likelihood of having undergone cancer screening. Results: For patients who perceived their risk of developing cancer during the next 10 years to be 30-40%, the odds ratio was increased 1.65 fold (95% CI: 1.223, 2.234) compared with those who perceived their risk to be almost zero. Although the difference was not statistically significant, perceiving cancer risk as either extremely low or extremely high appears to be associated with a reduced likelihood of having undergone cancer screening, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship. Conclusions: Physicians and researchers should be aware of the importance of the affective component of risk perception. Policies addressing the influence of cancer risk perception should be implemented in South Korea and worldwide.