In contrast there were others who expressed a heightened sense of risk due to their personal circumstances and health history. Assessing their personal risk in this way supports the view that people's understanding of risk is developed not only through cultural and sub-cultural membership, but also through personal experience [17] . This highlights the importance of risk communication encouraging people to personalize information. While all groups were aware of the concept of "high risk" groups the relationship between knowledge of "high risk factors" and individual perceptions of risk was less clear. Although some participants identified themselves as "high risk" they appeared to be uncertain about what this meant for them. Others used "othering" to minimise their own perception of risk by differentiating themselves from those who they identified as "high risk". This social construction of boundaries of "self" and "other" and their relationship to boundaries of "safety" and "danger" are particularly relevant to understanding notions of health and disease [18] .