Fig. 1

Perceived vs. Calculated Risk, Focus Group Participants, N = 28. The participants’ breast cancer risk was estimated using assessment calculators based on the Gail Model. They were grouped according to their risk relative to that of their peer group as below, at, or elevated risk. 5 were calculated to be below average risk. Among these women, 14 % of all participants, represented in blue, overestimated their risk, while 3.6 % correctly perceived their risk as below average, represented in green. For the women calculated at peer average, 7 % overestimated their risk and 3.6 % correctly identified their own risk, again shown in green. No one in this group underestimated their risk. Finally, in the high-risk group of 20 women, 43 % correctly perceived themselves as high risk, green, while 29 % underestimated their risk, red. The total number of women that overestimated their risk was 21 %, while 29 % underestimated their risk and 50 % correctly identified their own risk. 4 women who were unsure of their risk were excluded from these data