18 Evidence suggests other factors that may impact a man's health-seeking behaviour including (1) men may have an overly optimistic perception of their health status, (2) the role women play in care-seeking decisions of men, (3) the influence of social networks and mood disorders and (4) the relatively lower value men appear to place on preventive care.
The intervention may be more effective in patients with an optimistic risk perception at baseline compared with patients with a pessimistic risk perception, especially for intention to change behavior.
What can be identified in the light of these results, and drawing a comparison with our prospects, is: on the one hand, the pessimistic perception of Spaniards who live in a country with a very recent history of dramatic terrorist attacks—and, on the other hand, the optimistic perception of Finnish youngsters born in a country with no terrorist threats or military conflicts whatsoever.
Women with optimistic perception, underestimating their own risk, may feel invulnerable to breast cancer and mistakenly forgo the potential benefits of screening.
The results of the data analysis showed that the medical staff in pilot county hospitals exhibited a better understanding of the specific contents of the public hospital reform programme, more optimistic perception of the changes caused by the reform, and more firm confidence and positive attitude towards the reform compared with the medical staff in non-pilot county hospitals.
Further, a study conducted in the city of São Paulo with a young MSM cohort reported an association between optimistic perceptions about AIDS and unprotected sexual practices [26].
In the long term, however, easier access to infertility treatments and the possibility of extending reproductive life may induce women to further delay motherhood, possibly because of overly optimistic perceptions about the effectiveness of infertility treatments (Lampi 2006; Benyamini 2003).
Too optimistic perceptions of initiators may also have been caused by setting goals that were not challenging enough.
Therefore, the estimated increase in PTW trips is expected to result from a more optimistic safety perception of this mode of transport.
However, as always, it is possible that official self-assessment might be influenced by overly-optimistic perceptions or a willingness to sugarcoat reality.
