NEWS

Photo Note: To download a photo of Rimer, please see the end of release.

Survey finds women confused about findings of recent hormone therapy study

By WENDY TANSON
School of Public Health

CHAPEL HILL -- Results from a recent Women’s Health Initiative study found the risks of combination hormone therapy in women with uteri to outweigh the benefits. Those findings have left women confused about hormone therapy use and worried about how the findings might affect them, a new study suggests.

A report on the latest study appears in the winter 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association.

It comes in reaction to the "estrogen plus progestin" component of the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI, project that was stopped early when researchers found that increased risks of breast cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke outnumbered the benefits represented by reductions in hip fracture and colorectal cancer. (The results were widely disseminated in July 2002.)

"In the wake of the premature end of the WHI study, we sought to assess women’s knowledge of and attitudes about hormone therapy study findings, and to appraise women’s responses and intentions," said Dr. Barbara Rimer, professor of health behavior and health education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors.

Rimer, also deputy director for population sciences at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, co-wrote the study while director of the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences.

She and colleagues conducted a national random-digit-dialing telephone survey between July 26, 2002, and Aug. 6, 2002, in a sample of 819 households that included women ages 40 to 79. Fourteen questions assessed women’s reactions and responses to learning about scientific findings from the WHI study.

Researchers found 74 percent of survey participants to be confused about hormone therapy use, 57 percent worried about how the findings might affect them and 79 percent to be interested in obtaining additional information about hormone therapy. Only 25 percent of those who had heard about the WHI study results had actually sought additional information.

Co-authors of the study, all at the National Cancer Institute, are Dr. Erica Breslau, lead author, and Dr. Helen Meissner, both of the Applied Cancer Screening Research Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences; Dr. William Davis, of the Statistical Research and Applications Branch of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences; and Nina Goodman, of Market Research and Evaluation, Office of Communications.

Lynne Doner, a health communication consultant, and Dr. Jacques Rossouw, with the WHI at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, round out the research team.

"Women currently taking hormone therapy were most likely to be aware and informed," said Rimer. "They were also more likely to be confused, worried or to need to seek additional information."

More highly educated women and those with higher socioeconomic status were more likely to be aware and to have sought additional information.

"It is a particular concern that some women seem to be especially disadvantaged with regard to information-seeking," said Breslau. "Non-white women, those with a high school education or less and those with family incomes of less than $25,000 a year were less informed and more likely to be confused. Providers should make special efforts to educate these women."

Based on the study findings, the authors cited an increased opportunity and responsibility on the part of health professionals to promote informed decision-making as new possibilities become available.

"The findings from the WHI study have provided a clear message about the health risks and benefits of hormone therapy use," said Breslau. "An important next step will be to continue to convey accurate information to women, their health-care providers and the media. A challenge as additional WHI study findings are released will be to craft health messages that provide support for women and that do not over-promise results."

- 30 -

Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/rimer_barbara.jpg

Note: Rimer may be reached (919) 966-3761 or brimer@unc.edu

UNC School of Public Health contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu
National Cancer Institute contacts: Dorie Hightower and Peggy Vaughn, (301) 496-6641
Lineberger center contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-5905 or dgs@med.unc.edu