{"doi":"10.1089/thy.2023.0479","title":"Assessing Fear of Thyroid Cancer in the General U.S. Population: A Cross-Sectional Study","abstract":"Background:This study aimed to measure fear of thyroid cancer in the general U.S. population and identify factors associated with a high level of thyroid cancer-specific fear that may contribute to overtreatment. Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional survey using Prolific Academic Ltd. ®, an online survey platform. The survey was administered in August 2020 to English speaking adults (>17 years) in the United States who were registered with Prolific. The target sample was stratified to represent the demographics of the U.S. population. A validated, eight-item breast cancer fear scale was adapted to measure thyroid cancer-specific fear. Multivariate logistic regression identified factors significantly associated with high levels of thyroid cancer-specific fear. Results:Of the 1136 respondents (94.3% eligibility), 50.4% were female, 74.1% White, and the mean age was 45 years (SD = 16 years). Overall, 47.5% of respondents had high levels of thyroid cancer-specific fear. Multivariate regression demonstrated that age <40 years (OR = 2.46 vs. 65+ [95% confidence interval {CI} = 1.60–3.80]) and female gender (OR = 1.48 vs. male [CI = 1.13–1.93]) were associated with high levels of thyroid cancer fear. Believing thyroid cancer (OR = 2.71 [CI = 1.99–3.69]) and cancer in general are serious (OR = 1.53 [CI = 1.13–2.08]) were also associated with high levels of thyroid cancer fear. Respondents who overestimated thyroid cancer incidence (OR = 1.64 [CI = 1.25–2.13]) and believed they had a high chance of developing cancer (OR = 1.70 [CI = 1.19–2.42]) were also more likely to have high fear of thyroid cancer. Conclusion:Thyroid cancer-specific fear is prevalent in U.S. adults particularly in females and those younger than 40 years. Because disease-specific fear is associated with overtreatment, targeted education about the seriousness, incidence, and risk factors for developing thyroid cancer may decrease public fear and possibly overtreatment related to “scared decision-making.”","journal":"Thyroid","year":2023,"id":353473,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7598,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1099752,"name":"Alexander G. Chiu","orcid":"0000-0002-7592-6575","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1100183,"name":"Ines Hoxha","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482506,"name":"Megan C. Saucke","orcid":"0000-0002-5133-5295","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482507,"name":"Catherine B. Jensen","orcid":"0000-0002-0883-7513","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383650,"name":"Susan C. Pitt","orcid":"0000-0002-6978-3408","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":503287,"name":"Stephanie R. Taylor","orcid":"0000-0003-3562-6479","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":28,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:12:58.542950Z","pmid":"38115606","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}