Americans Worry Most About Getting Cancer

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Yesterday was World AIDS day, meant to increase awareness of the problem of AIDS in the world. However, according to a recent Gallup Poll, most Americans are not concerned about personally contracting this disease -- two in three say they are not worried at all about getting AIDS. Rather, Americans express the greatest concern about cancer, with heart disease or heart attack the next most common concern. The survey also finds some indirect evidence that smokers and overweight people are aware of possible risks to their health. They are more concerned about getting diseases thought to be linked to smoking and obesity.

The poll was conducted Nov. 3-5 and asked respondents to rate their level of concern about personally experiencing each of 14 different diseases or medical conditions. For only two of the conditions did a majority of Americans say they were at least somewhat concerned -- cancer and heart disease. Sixty-three percent of Americans say they are "very" or "somewhat concerned" with getting cancer and 55% worry about heart disease or heart attack.

Taking into consideration both your risk of contracting it and the seriousness of the illness, how worried are you personally about experiencing the following illnesses – very worried, somewhat worried, not too worried, or not worried at all? % Very / Somewhat Worried

Nov. 3-5, 2003

Arthritis, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and vision loss are the next most feared medical conditions from the list, with at least 4 in 10 Americans saying they are somewhat or very concerned with experiencing them. At the other end of the spectrum, Americans are least concerned about getting AIDS (just 16% are very or somewhat worried), emphysema (18%), Lyme disease (18%), and Parkinson's disease (18%).

In a separate question, slightly fewer than half the public expressed concern about getting a deadly virus like SARS (45%) that comes to the United States from another country, or a deadly infectious disease like smallpox (46%) that would be spread by terrorists.

Demographic Differences

Generally speaking, men and women do not differ much in the level of worry they express about the various medical conditions tested in the poll.

There were several age differences, though these did not exhibit a consistent pattern. Specifically:

• Older Americans are more worried about getting Alzheimer's disease -- 42% of those aged 50 and older are worried, compared with 34% of those under age 50 (including just 27% of those aged 18 to 29).

• Older Americans also expressed more concern about having a stroke -- 48% of those 50 and older worry about stroke compared with 40% of those below 50 (and 36% of those aged 18 to 29).

• On the other hand, younger Americans are substantially more worried about getting diabetes -- 44% of those under age 50 worry about getting diabetes compared with 32% of those aged 50 and older, and only 26% of those aged 65 and older.

• Younger people are also more likely to worry about getting high blood pressure -- 46% of Americans under age 50 worry about it, compared with 34% of those aged 50 and older.

• Worry about getting AIDS decreases sharply by age. Twenty-eight percent of 18 to 29-year-olds are worried, compared with 17% of 30 to 49-year-olds, and just 7% of those aged 50 and older.

• While there is little variation in the percentage of Americans below age 65 who are worried about getting cancer, those aged 65 and older are significantly less likely to worry about getting it. While a small percentage of seniors (3%) volunteer that they already have cancer, this does not explain the more than 10-percentage point gap between them and the younger age groups.

Smoking and Obesity

Smoking and obesity have been linked to several of the diseases measured in the survey. The survey suggests there is a higher level of concern for people who -- because of their current health situation -- presumably are more at risk for getting certain diseases.

To varying degrees, Americans who describe themselves as overweight are more likely than those who say they are not overweight to express concern about getting heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

• People who describe themselves as overweight are substantially more likely to be concerned about getting heart disease (62%) than those who describe themselves as underweight or at the appropriate weight (49%).

• Similarly, overweight Americans express a higher level of concern over getting high blood pressure (47%) than those who are not overweight (37%).

• Overweight people are also more likely to worry about getting diabetes (45%) than those who are not overweight (36%).

Smoking has been linked to lung cancer and heart disease, and other lung diseases such as emphysema. Smokers express only slightly more concern than non-smokers (66% to 61%) about getting cancer. A larger gap in concern between smokers and non-smokers is evident when it comes to heart disease (62% to 52%). The largest differences are observed for emphysema -- smokers are nearly five times more likely to worry about getting emphysema than non-smokers (44% to 9%).

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,007 adults, 18 years and older, conducted Nov. 3-5, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

45. Taking into consideration both your risk of contracting it and the seriousness of the illness, how worried are you personally about experiencing the following illnesses -- very worried, somewhat worried, not too worried, or not worried at all? How about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?

45a. Again, taking into consideration both your risk of contracting it and the seriousness of the following, how worried are you personally about experiencing the following -- very worried, somewhat worried, not too worried, or not worried at all? How about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?

A. A deadly virus, such as SARS or something similar, that spreads to the United States from a foreign country.

B. A deadly infectious disease, such as smallpox or something similar, that is bought into the United States by terrorists.