There is often a tendency for academics – and practitioners – to focus on the research undertaken in
their own discipline and to overlook relevant knowledge from other fields. This paper has
demonstrated how the communication of breast cancer risk information can be optimised by
considering knowledge from two disciplines – marketing and behavioural science. Specific
recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of risk communications include: segment the target
audience(s) by age and by education level/literacy; set clear knowledge, belief and behavioural
objectives; utilise the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a framework for developing the message; and
implement findings from risk communication research (such as use positive framing and refer to the
gains from screening, and use multiple forms of risk information presentation). We also identified
some key areas for future research, notably determining whether or not to use fear appeals, and
whether to present risk information alone or in comparison to a known risk.