Abstract B29: Attitudes and beliefs of college students on biospecimen collection Free

1SDSU/UCSD Cancer Center Comprehensive Partnership, San Diego, CA. To date, little research has focused on understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about biospecimen collection, particularly among different populations representing a range of ethnic groups. Although there has been increasing interest amidst the research community in biospecimen science in the past 5 years, that same interest has not been echoed throughout the lay community. In fact, there are anecdotal data that suggest that members of certain underrepresented groups are opposed to providing biospecimens under any circumstances. To begin filling this gap, we examined young adults’ knowledge and attitudes about biospecimens. In this study, a nine item measure adapted from the Cerebrovascular Beliefs and Attitudes Scale-Revised (CABS-R) was given to assess exposure and attitudes toward biospecimens and ten additional items assessed exposure and knowledge about biospecimens. A total of 353 undergraduate students (mean age=19.13) completed an on-line questionnaire about biospecimens as part of a larger study of health beliefs and attitudes. ANOVAs to compare mean differences revealed those who had prior knowledge about cancer or biospecimens were more likely to have positive views of biospecimens [F(1) = 6.821, p< .05]. The implications for future research include the types of interventions that might be necessary to make biospecimen donation more acceptable to members of different ethnic groups, and the barriers to increased biospecimen donation. Future studies would benefit from utilizing focus groups to assess the reasons for negative attitudes toward biospecimens among diverse communities.

1SDSU/UCSD Cancer Center Comprehensive Partnership, San Diego, CA. To date, little research has focused on understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about biospecimen collection, particularly among different populations representing a range of ethnic groups. Although there has been increasing interest amidst the research community in biospecimen science in the past 5 years, that same interest has not been echoed throughout the lay community. In fact, there are anecdotal data that suggest that members of certain underrepresented groups are opposed to providing biospecimens under any circumstances. To begin filling this gap, we examined young adults’ knowledge and attitudes about biospecimens. In this study, a nine item measure adapted from the Cerebrovascular Beliefs and Attitudes Scale-Revised (CABS-R) was given to assess exposure and attitudes toward biospecimens and ten additional items assessed exposure and knowledge about biospecimens. A total of 353 undergraduate students (mean age=19.13) completed an on-line questionnaire about biospecimens as part of a larger study of health beliefs and attitudes. ANOVAs to compare mean differences revealed those who had prior knowledge about cancer or biospecimens were more likely to have positive views of biospecimens [F(1) = 6.821, p< .05]. The implications for future research include the types of interventions that might be necessary to make biospecimen donation more acceptable to members of different ethnic groups, and the barriers to increased biospecimen donation. Future studies would benefit from utilizing focus groups to assess the reasons for negative attitudes toward biospecimens among diverse communities.

1SDSU/UCSD Cancer Center Comprehensive Partnership, San Diego, CA. To date, little research has focused on understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about biospecimen collection, particularly among different populations representing a range of ethnic groups. Although there has been increasing interest amidst the research community in biospecimen science in the past 5 years, that same interest has not been echoed throughout the lay community. In fact, there are anecdotal data that suggest that members of certain underrepresented groups are opposed to providing biospecimens under any circumstances. To begin filling this gap, we examined young adults’ knowledge and attitudes about biospecimens. In this study, a nine item measure adapted from the Cerebrovascular Beliefs and Attitudes Scale-Revised (CABS-R) was given to assess exposure and attitudes toward biospecimens and ten additional items assessed exposure and knowledge about biospecimens. A total of 353 undergraduate students (mean age=19.13) completed an on-line questionnaire about biospecimens as part of a larger study of health beliefs and attitudes. ANOVAs to compare mean differences revealed those who had prior knowledge about cancer or biospecimens were more likely to have positive views of biospecimens [F(1) = 6.821, p< .05]. The implications for future research include the types of interventions that might be necessary to make biospecimen donation more acceptable to members of different ethnic groups, and the barriers to increased biospecimen donation. Future studies would benefit from utilizing focus groups to assess the reasons for negative attitudes toward biospecimens among diverse communities.

1SDSU/UCSD Cancer Center Comprehensive Partnership, San Diego, CA. To date, little research has focused on understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about biospecimen collection, particularly among different populations representing a range of ethnic groups. Although there has been increasing interest amidst the research community in biospecimen science in the past 5 years, that same interest has not been echoed throughout the lay community. In fact, there are anecdotal data that suggest that members of certain underrepresented groups are opposed to providing biospecimens under any circumstances. To begin filling this gap, we examined young adults’ knowledge and attitudes about biospecimens. In this study, a nine item measure adapted from the Cerebrovascular Beliefs and Attitudes Scale-Revised (CABS-R) was given to assess exposure and attitudes toward biospecimens and ten additional items assessed exposure and knowledge about biospecimens. A total of 353 undergraduate students (mean age=19.13) completed an on-line questionnaire about biospecimens as part of a larger study of health beliefs and attitudes. ANOVAs to compare mean differences revealed those who had prior knowledge about cancer or biospecimens were more likely to have positive views of biospecimens [F(1) = 6.821, p< .05]. The implications for future research include the types of interventions that might be necessary to make biospecimen donation more acceptable to members of different ethnic groups, and the barriers to increased biospecimen donation. Future studies would benefit from utilizing focus groups to assess the reasons for negative attitudes toward biospecimens among diverse communities.