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Background: Health-risk information is increasingly being conveyed through accounts of personal experiences or narrative information. However, whether self-affirmation can enhance the ability of such messages to promote behavior change has yet to be established.Purpose: This study aims to test whether self-affirmation (a) promotes behavior change following exposure to narrative information about the risks of excessive alcohol consumption and (b) boosts message acceptance by increasing narrative engagement.Methods: In an experimental design, female drinkers (N = 142) reported their baseline alcohol consumption and were randomly allocated to condition (Self-Affirmation, Control). All participants next watched an extract of a genuine narrative piece in which the central character discussed her liver disease and its link with her previous alcohol consumption. Then, participants completed measures assessing engagement with the narrative and message acceptance. The primary outcome was alcohol consumption, assessed at 7-day follow-up.Results: Self-affirmed participants reported consuming significantly less alcohol at follow-up compared to baseline (mean 7-day decrease = 5.43 units); there was no change in alcohol consumption for the control group. Immediately post-manipulation, self-affirmed participants (vs. control) showed more message acceptance and reported greater engagement with the information. The impact of self-affirmation on message acceptance was mediated by narrative engagement.Conclusions: Self-affirmation can promote behavior change following exposure to health information, even when presented in narrative form.Clinical Trial Registration: The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT02681900, ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02681900 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Optimism and self-affirmation promote adaptive coping, goal achievement, and better health.Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the associations of optimism and spontaneous self-affirmation (SSA) with physical, mental, and cognitive health and information seeking among cancer survivors.Methods: Cancer survivors (n = 326) completed the Health Information National Trends Survey 2013, a national survey of US adults. Participants reported optimism, SSA, cognitive and physical impairment, affect, health status, and information seeking.Results: Participants higher in optimism reported better health on nearly all indices examined, even when controlling for SSA. Participants higher in SSA reported lower likelihood of cognitive impairment, greater happiness and hopefulness, and greater likelihood of cancer information seeking. SSA remained significantly associated with greater hopefulness and cancer information seeking when controlling for optimism.Conclusions: Optimism and SSA may be associated with beneficial health-related outcomes among cancer survivors. Given the demonstrated malleability of self-affirmation, these findings represent important avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Information avoidance is a defensive strategy that undermines receipt of potentially beneficial but threatening health information and may especially occur when threat management resources are unavailable. Purpose: We examined whether individual differences in information avoidance predicted intentions to receive genetic sequencing results for preventable and unpreventable (i.e., more threatening) disease and, secondarily, whether threat management resources of self-affirmation or optimism mitigated any effects. Methods: Participants ( N = 493) in an NIH study (ClinSeq®) piloting the use of genome sequencing reported intentions to receive (optional) sequencing results and completed individual difference measures of information avoidance, self-affirmation, and optimism. Results: Information avoidance tendencies corresponded with lower intentions to learn results, particularly for unpreventable diseases. The association was weaker among individuals higher in self-affirmation or optimism, but only for results regarding preventable diseases. Conclusions: Information avoidance tendencies may influence decisions to receive threatening health information; threat management resources hold promise for mitigating this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hemodialysis patients are at risk of serious health complications, yet treatment non-adherence remains high.Purpose: Warnings about health risks associated with non-adherence may trigger defensive reactions. We studied whether an intervention based on self-affirmation theory (Steele 1988) reduced patients' resistance to health-risk information and improved adherence.Methods: One hundred twelve patients either self-affirmed or completed a matched control task before reading about the risks associated with a lack of phosphate control. Serum phosphate was collected from baseline up to 12 months.Results: Self-affirmed patients had significantly reduced serum phosphate levels at 1 and 12 months. However, contrary to the predictions derived from self-affirmation theory, self-affirmed participants and controls did not differ in their evaluation of the health-risk information, behavioural intention or self-efficacy.Conclusions: A low-cost, high-reach health intervention based on self-affirmation theory was shown to reduce serum phosphate over a 12 month period. Further work is required to identify mediators of the observed effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is limited evidence that self-affirmation manipulations can promote health behavior change. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore whether the efficacy of a self-affirmation manipulation at promoting exercise could be enhanced by an implementation intention intervention. Methods: Participants (Study 1 N = 120, Study 2 N = 116) were allocated to one of four conditions resulting from the two (self-affirmation manipulation: no affirmation, affirmation) by two (implementation intention manipulation: no implementation intention, implementation intention) experimental design. Exercise behavior was assessed 1 week post-intervention. Results: Contrary to prediction, those participants receiving both manipulations were significantly less likely to increase the amount they exercised compared to those receiving only the self-affirmation manipulation. Conclusion: Incorporating an implementation intention manipulation alongside a self-affirmation manipulation had a detrimental effect on exercise behavior; participants receiving both manipulations exercised significantly less in the week following the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]