Health Behavior Change in Cancer Patients and Families

描述（由申请人提供）：由于遗传和/或生活方式的风险因素，许多癌症幸存者及其亲属仍然面临医疗并发症的风险。虽然一些患者和家庭成员会被癌症诊断提示去解决可改变的风险因素（如吸烟、不良饮食），但其他人则不会。不幸的是，行为癌症研究尚未确定预测改变健康相关行为动机的因素，因此临床医生在确定哪些个体可能实施这些改变方面的能力有限。本研究基于疾病表征的常识模型，检验了癌症患者及其一级亲属的行为改变受癌症信念影响的假设。具体来说，这项研究将着眼于健康行为（如饮食、吸烟、锻炼）与两种癌症相关信念之间的关系：一种是关于癌症起因的信念，另一种是关于不同健康行为对癌症病程影响的信念。因此，这项简短的评估研究有可能阐明原发性和继发性癌症预防的一个重要领域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many cancer survivors and their relatives remain at risk for medical complications due to genetic and/or lifestyle risk factors. Although some patients and family members are prompted by a cancer diagnosis to address modifiable risk factors (e.g., smoking, poor diet) others are not. Unfortunately, behavioral cancer research has not yet identified the factors that predict motivation to change health-related behaviors, and thus clinicians are limited in their ability to determine which individuals are likely to implement these changes. This study tests the hypothesis that behavior change among cancer patients and their first-degree relatives is influenced by beliefs about the cancer, based on the Common-sense Model of Illness Representation. In specific, the study will look at the association between health behaviors (e.g., diet, smoking, exercise) and two types of cancer-related beliefs: beliefs about the cause of the cancer, and beliefs about the influence of different health behaviors on the course of cancer. This brief assessment study, therefore, has the potential to shed light on an important area of primary and secondary cancer prevention.