Influence of ‘framing effect’ on women's support for government funding of breast cancer screening

Abstract

Abstract Objectives:To explore whether Australian women's support for government funding of mammographic screening is influenced by ‘framing effect’. Method:Self‐administered survey of 701 women in general practice to elicit their support for government funding of each of four mammographic screening programs where benefits were expressed as a relative risk reduction (RRR); absolute risk reduction (ARR); number needed to screen (NNS) and number of cases detected for additional death avoided. Results:The proportion of respondents indicating they ‘definitely would support funding’ was significantly greater when benefits were expressed as RRR than ARR (χ21=148.4, p<0.0001), NNS (χ21=126.4, p<0.0001) or number of cases detected for additional deaths avoided (χ21=29.0, p<0.0001). 55.8% of women were not influenced by ‘framing effect’. Younger women and those with higher educational levels were more likely to be susceptible to ‘framing effect’. Conclusion:Having demonstrated its influence among these women, ‘framing effect’ should be acknowledged in future research.