Unrealistic Optimism, Sex, and Risk Perception of Type 2 Diabetes Onset: Implications for Education Programs

Reyes-Velázquez, Wanda; Sealey-Potts, Claudia

Individuals' risk perception is based on their intuitive judgments when evaluating potential hazards (13) . Risk perception for becoming ill is crucial to explaining why people engage in health-related behaviors (14) . A few studies of risk perception and diabetes have been conducted among college students. One survey was designed to determine college students' perception of their risk for developing diabetes in the next 10 years (15) . The results showed that participants who identified themselves as being part of a racial or ethnic group other than non-Hispanic white and who had family members with diabetes perceived an absolute 10-year risk of diabetes onset (15) . Another study found that participants rated their risk for diabetes onset lower than their risk for heart disease (16). A third study focusing on perceived susceptibility among college students found that 32% of a sample of 707 students perceived themselves to be susceptible to developing diabetes (17) . It has been proposed that individuals must perceive that they are at high risk of developing a disease to consider modifying their health behaviors to prevent its onset (18) .