Cancer Myths Go Along With People Who Believe False Ideas

Is belief in cancer myths linked to behaviors? People who believe in conspiracies are more likely to endorse mythical causes of cancer.

People who believe in conspiracies, reject the COVID-19 vaccine, or prefer alternative medicine are more likely to endorse mythical causes of cancer than non-conspiracists but are less likely to endorse actual causes of cancer, finds a study published in The BMJ.

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, yet up to half of the diagnosed cancer is preventable through lifestyle changes and vaccination, such as human papillomavirus (HPV).

Breast Cancer - Prevention and Management with Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle choices may or may not cause breast cancer but healthy lifestyle changes can open up avenues beyond breast cancer. Good habits will allow one to fight breast cancer and to live with dignity.

‘Distinguishing the actual causes of cancer from mythical causes is difficult due to the misinformation on the news and social media platforms.’

Misinformation about what causes cancer can lead to people refusing to adopt such preventive measures. But no data exist on vaccination skepticism or conspiracy beliefs concerning beliefs about and attitudes to cancer prevention.

To examine this, researchers surveyed users of several popular online discussion platforms on their beliefs about cancer from January to March 2022.

They asked participants to provide information on their age, gender, country of birth, country of residence, education level, and whether their job was medical related.

Diet to Prevent Colon Cancer - Health Tips - Glossary
Diet and lifestyle play an important role in reducing the risk and delaying the onset of cancer. Incorporating and eliminating certain other foods may reduce the risk of acquiring colon cancer.

Questions on health habits and behaviors included a preference for conventional or alternative medicines, attitudes towards covid-19 vaccination, smoking status, alcohol consumption, weight and height, and personal history of cancer.

Prevalence of Beliefs About Actual and Mythical Causes of Cancer

Further questions assessed conspiracy beliefs (flat earth or reptilian theories) and beliefs about both actual and mythical (non-established) causes of cancer based on the validated Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) and CAM-Mythical Causes Scale (CAM-MYCS). Responses were recorded on a five-point scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.

Actual causes of cancer included smoking, consuming alcohol, low levels of physical activity, getting sunburnt as a child, family history of cancer, HPV infection, and being overweight.

World Cancer Day 2014: Debunk the Myths
World Cancer Day an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control is celebrated annually on the fourth of February. The World Cancer Day 2014 aims to debunk certain myths about cancer.

Mythical causes included eating food containing artificial sweeteners or additives and genetically modified food; using microwave ovens, aerosol containers, mobile phones, and cleaning products; living near power lines, and feeling stressed.

After excluding incomplete questionnaires, 1494 responders were included in the analysis. Of these, 209 were unvaccinated against covid-19, 112 preferred alternatives rather than conventional medicine, and 62 reported flat earth or reptilian beliefs.

Cutting-edge Gene Therapy Offers Hope for Incurable Cancers
Amazing base-editing treatment works for a teenager suffering from cancer when all other treatments fail.

Among all participants, awareness of the causes of cancer was poor, although awareness of the actual causes of cancer was greater (median CAM score 64%) than that of mythical causes (42%).

Does Everything Causes Cancer? Don’t Believe the Hype

The most endorsed actual causes of cancer were active and passive smoking, family history of cancer, and being overweight. The most endorsed mythical causes of cancer were eating food containing additives or sweeteners, feeling stressed, and eating genetically modified food.

Awareness of the actual and mythical causes of cancer among the unvaccinated, alternative medicine, and conspiracy groups was lower (average 55% and 19% for actual and mythical causes, respectively) than among their counterparts (average 64% actual and 42% mythical).

Almost half (673; 45%) of the participants, whether conspiracists or not, agreed with the statement “It seems like everything causes cancer. No significant differences in this outcome were seen among the unvaccinated (44%), conspiracist (42%), or alternative medicine groups (36%), compared with their counterparts (45%, 46%, and 46%, respectively).

These are observational findings and the researchers acknowledge that their results may have been affected by ‘troll’ or fake responses, which could overestimate conclusions but also may be prone to other biases that could underestimate conclusions.

Nevertheless, they say this study is the first to show the possible patterns of beliefs about cancer among conspiracy believers, and results on the overall endorsement of causes of cancer are mostly in line with previous studies.

These results suggest a direct connection between digital misinformation and consequent erroneous health decisions, which may represent a further preventable fraction of cancer.

Source-Eurekalert