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Objectives: The primary aim was to explore adolescents' cardiovascular disease risk appraisals and establish whether they understood the preventative role of physical activity (PA). The secondary aim was to examine whether adolescents' cardiovascular disease risk appraisal fitted with the Illness Risk Representations (IRR) framework.Design: Qualitative.Methods: Thirty-one adolescents aged between 13 and 15 years participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis.Results: Knowledge of lifestyle behaviours contributing to cardiovascular disease was good. Participants reflected on their current (or expected future) patterns of these behaviours when making judgements about lifetime risk. They struggled however to explain how different health behaviours, including PA, affected the development of the disease. Cardiovascular disease was viewed as potentially fatal, but participants had only a superficial understanding of the consequences of, or treatments for, the disease. The IRR framework, as proposed by Cameron (2003, https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/brp/research/theories_project/cameron.pdf), largely captured the way in which adolescents' made judgements about their risk of cardiovascular disease.Conclusions: The findings suggest that adolescents are underestimating their risk of cardiovascular disease due to unhelpful beliefs. Interventions should: provide clear and simple explanations of how different health behaviours contribute to cardiovascular risk, highlight discrepancies that exist between current levels of preventative behaviour and that required to confer a protective effect, expose the false belief that a lack of PA in early life can be compensated for in later adulthood, and aid understanding of the true impact that the disease and its treatment could have of health and quality of life outcomes. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Physical activity (PA) throughout one's lifetime can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The majority of adolescents' do not meet the recommended levels of PA. Changing beliefs about the risk of cardiovascular disease might be a useful strategy to motivate engagement in PA. What does this study add? An increased understanding of adolescents' knowledge of cardiovascular disease and the link with PA. Identification of strategies to change adolescents' risk perceptions of cardiovascular disease in ways that could motivate PA. Evidence to support the Illness Risk Representation framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The primary objective was to explore young people's risk appraisals of bowel cancer, including whether they had a coherent understanding of the protective effects of physical activity (PA). A secondary objective was to examine whether the illness risk representations (IRRs) framework could be used to understand beliefs underlying bowel cancer risk appraisals.Design: Qualitative.Methods: Framework analysis of semi-structured interviews with 19 people aged 14-17 years.Results: Participants judged their risk of getting bowel cancer as low. This was based on a lack of family history of cancer and their current lifestyle behaviours, which were viewed as having a protective effect, or because they planned on making change to their lifestyle in the future when disease risk became more relevant. Participants were not aware of, and struggled to understand, the link between PA and bowel cancer. They also lacked knowledge of the effects of, or treatments for, bowel cancer. Beliefs underlying judgements about the risk of bowel cancer fitted the IRR framework reasonably well.Conclusions: The present research suggests that interventions designed to increase PA with a view to reducing the risk of bowel cancer should aim to make the future risk of bowel cancer feel more tangible, help young people to understand the full range of consequences, explain how and why preventative behaviours such as PA are effective in reducing risk, and emphasize that the typical late presentation of symptoms, and therefore investigation by health care services, reduces treatability. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Physical activity (PA) performed throughout the lifespan can have a protective effect on bowel cancer, but levels of PA are low among young people. Changing beliefs about the risk of getting bowel cancer may be a useful strategy in motivating PA. What does this study add? Increased understanding of how young people think about bowel cancer and the relationship between PA and cancer. Identification of strategies for increasing young adults' appraisals of the likelihood and severity of bowel cancer. Evidence to support the validity of illness risk representations framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To test the hypothesis that adding obesity gene feedback ( FTO) to simple weight control advice at a life stage with raised risk of weight gain (university) increases readiness to control weight. Methods Individually randomized controlled trial comparing the effect of: (i) simple weight control advice plus FTO feedback (FA) and (ii) simple weight control advice only (AO) on readiness to engage with weight control. Differences in stage of change by genotype and differential weight control behaviors were secondary outcomes. Results Of 1,016 participants randomized, only 279 completed follow-up, yielding 90% power to detect a small effect for readiness to control weight. As predicted, FA participants were more likely to be in the contemplation stage than AO participants ( P = 0.023). Participants receiving higher-risk genetic results were at a higher stage of change than controls ( P = 0.003), with a trend toward a higher stage of change than those getting lower-risk results ( P = 0.051). Lower-risk results did not decrease weight control intentions compared with controls ( P = 0.55). There were no group differences in adherence to recommended weight control behaviors ( P = 0.87). Conclusions Adding FTO feedback to weight control advice enhanced readiness to control weight, without evidence for genetic determinism, but had no more effect on behavior than weight control advice alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic testing for obesity risk is increasingly available to the public but few studies have examined motivational or affective reactions. Here we report findings from a 'vignette' study investigating reactions to 'higher-risk' and 'average-risk' results for the obesity-related FTO gene in two groups: a panel sample of individuals with weight concerns, for whom testing may have treatment implications (n = 306, mean age = 45 years, mean BMI = 35) and a student sample (n = 395, mean age = 25 years, mean BMI = 23), for whom testing would have implications for obesity prevention. Participants were given FTO gene information that described higher-risk alleles as linked with modest weight gain and slightly higher risk of obesity. They responded to both higher- and average-risk vignettes, with order randomized. Interest in genetic testing was high overall, and higher in panel respondents than students (93% vs. 78% would 'probably' or 'definitely' have the test; P < 0.001). In students, a higher-risk result generated higher motivation to change (d = 0.15; P < 0.001), but also slightly higher negative affect (d = 0.03, P < 0.001) and fatalism (d = 0.05, P < 0.001) than an average-risk result. Panel respondents also had higher motivation to change (d = 0.17, P < 0.001) as well as relief about having an explanation for their body weight (d = 0.02, P = 0.013) in the higher-risk condition, but no increase in fatalism or depression. These results suggest that at the level of anticipated responses to FTO gene feedback, higher-risk results had positive motivational effects with minimal changes in negative affect or fatalism. Genetic testing has the potential to be a useful clinical or preventive tool when combined with appropriate information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]