Emotional Barriers to Bowel Screening in Italy: Scale psychometric properties and effects on screening attendance

Objective To assess a three‐factor version of the Emotional Barriers to Bowel Screening (EBBS) scale; analyze the scale's psychometric properties; and investigate the associations of fecal disgust, embarrassment, and fear with colorectal cancer (CRC) screening avoidance. Methods Retrospective d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) England), 2022-01, Vol.31 (1), p.78-85
Main Authors: Scaglioni, Giulia, Cavazza, Nicoletta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attendance
Avoidance behavior
Blood tests
cancer
Colorectal cancer
colorectal neoplasms
Confirmatory factor analysis
Disgust
Embarrassment
Emotions
fear
Fear & phobias
Feces
Health care
Health services utilization
mass screening
Medical screening
Negative emotions
oncology
perception
psycho‐oncology
Quantitative psychology
Risk perception
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Summary:Objective To assess a three‐factor version of the Emotional Barriers to Bowel Screening (EBBS) scale; analyze the scale's psychometric properties; and investigate the associations of fecal disgust, embarrassment, and fear with colorectal cancer (CRC) screening avoidance. Methods Retrospective design: We asked participants to rate negative emotions associated with CRC screenings as well as whether they had ever attended a fecal occult blood test. Sample: 268 Italian adults aged 45−74 years. Measures: negative emotions, screening knowledge, CRC risk perception, demographic and background data, and hypothetical medical help‐seeking. Analyses: Confirmatory factor analyses, correlations, logistic regressions. Results The EBBS scale is a multidimensional instrument and, at least where fecal tests are of interest, can be used without the insertion disgust subscale. The analyzed negative emotions were negatively correlated with screening attendance and positively correlated with intention to delay seeking medical help. However, logistic regression models showed that, of the three analyzed emotions, fear about outcome was the only significant predictor of screening behavior and delaying medical care. Conclusions Further studies can adopt the version of the EBBS scale that is most suitable for their research contexts. Interventions must be designed to reassure patients.
ISSN:1057-9249
1099-1611
DOI:10.1002/pon.5781