1. The Research Question
Helping Patients Reach a Balanced Understanding of Controversial Cancer Screening Recommendations: The Impossible Dream?
B Saver, R Luckmann, M Hayes, K Mazor, G Bacigalupe, J Calista, N Esparza, T Gorodetsky
Why this is important?
The USPSTF has recently issued controversial recommendations about prostate cancer screening and mammography for women aged 40-49
Patients and some providers are confused by the counterintuitive recommendations and conflicting evidence
Information alone rarely changes behavior – can a persuasive, evidence-based approach be effective?
BP34 Adherence to Antibiotic Prescribing for LRTI and Association With Recovery (Oral Presentation On Completed Research) Nick Francis, MD, PhD, Cardiff University; David Gillespie; Jacqueline Nuttall; Paul Little; Theo Verheij; Samuel Coenen; Jochen Cals; Kerenza Hood; Herman Goossens; Christopher Butler

2. What the Researchers Did
Participants: 27 men aged and 28 women aged recruited from academic & community health center clinics
Design: For each topic, 2 English- and 1 Spanish-language focus group
Basic Method/Intervention:
Initial focus group on each topic presented information about tests, benefits, harms, guidelines and how generated
Scripts for subsequent focus groups modified to focus more on persuading participants to trust/believe USPSTF recommendations
Polled periodically during final groups for opinions about screening
aged ≥18 years, consulting with an illness where an acute or worsened cough was the main or dominant symptom, or had a clinical presentation that suggested a lower respiratory tract infection that had been present for ≥28 days.

3. What the Researchers Found
Neither men nor women aware of USPSTF
No traction from distinguishing between processes used by USPSTF and other groups
No traction without first making harms clear
Men did not easily grasp cascade following abnormal PSA test, but readily understood and wished to avoid treatment harms
Women had much greater difficulty appreciating mammography harms
Socialization to the value of mammography is very strong, but providers are generally trusted

4. What This Means for Clinical Practice
A persuasive approach, starting with making harms clear and then clarifying current knowledge about benefits, may help many men accept USPSTF recommendation against PSA screening
This approach for women and mammography may be less accepted
Provider recommendations are very important
USPSTF recommendations likely to change patient behavior only as they affect provider recommendations