Socio‐Economic Inequalities in Beliefs About Cancer and its Causes: Evidence From two Population Surveys Galicia Pacheco, Sergio Iván Catena Martínez, Andrés Sánchez, María José Rueda Cuerva, María Del Rosario Aljarilla Sánchez, Lucas Costas, Laura Garrido del Águila, Dunia García Retamero Imedio, María Del Rocío Espina, Carolina Rodríguez-Barranco, Miguel Petrova, Dafina beliefs cancer cancer awareness Objective: People's beliefs about cancer can affect the actions they take to prevent and detect the disease. We investigated socioeconomic inequalities in beliefs about cancer and its causes in the general population. Methods: We analyzed data from the representative probabilistic Spanish Oncobarometer survey (N = 4769, 2020) and the nonprobabilistic weight‐corrected Spanish Cancer Awareness Survey (N = 1029, 2022). Beliefs about cancer, recognition of cancer symptoms, and recognition of risk factors were measured with the Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer questionnaire. Endorsement of mythical causes was measured with the CAM‐Mythical Causes questionnaire. The effects of socio‐economic status (SES) were investigated in multiple regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, and personal and family cancer history. Results: Individuals with lower SES were more likely to endorse pessimistic beliefs (e.g., “cancer is a death sentence”), and less likely to endorse optimistic beliefs about cancer (e.g., “people with cancer continue with normal activities”). Individuals with lower SES also recognized fewer cancer symptoms and risk factors and endorsed more mythical causes of cancer. The gap in knowledge regarding cancer causes was wider among people with low SES, who were more likely to endorse several mythical causes than some established risk factors included in cancer prevention recommendations. Conclusions: Socio‐economic inequalities in beliefs about cancer are robust and multidimensional and indicate worse preparedness to act against the disease among lower socio‐economic groups. Differences in beliefs about disease outcomes and causes are likely one of the multiple contributors to cancer disparities and should be targeted and monitored in prevention efforts. 2024-12-20T08:08:54Z 2024-12-20T08:08:54Z 2024-12-03 journal article Galicia Pacheco, S.I. et. al. Psycho‐Oncology, 2024; 33:e70035. [https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.70035] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/98327 10.1002/pon.70035 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Wiley Online Library