Comms 7 (Risk) Flashcards
Why is innumeracy important to consider when communicating risk?
We are very bad at understanding an interpreting numbers in a way that accurately projects the risk of something happening.
Statistics are a great way to give impressions that are biased.
Patient decisions are based on risk of certain outcomes e.g. drugs, surgery etc
What is relative risk?
Ratio of the probability of an event occurring (for example, developing a disease, being injured) in an exposed group to the probability of the event occurring in a comparison, non-exposed group.
What is absolute risk?
The change in the risk of an outcome of a given treatment or activity in relation to a comparison treatment or activity.
What is ‘number needed to treat’?
The average number of patients who need to be treated to prevent one additional bad outcome (e.g. the number of patients that need to be treated for one of them to benefit compared with a control in a clinical trial). It is defined as the inverse of the absolute risk reduction.
What is important to remember when communicating risk?
Remember its an individual choice for the patient
Everyone has different risk appetite
Our job is not to tell people they are right or wrong but facilitate their choice
What barriers are there to good risk based decision making?
Incentives for prescribing (QOF)
Our internal desire to “do” something
Research pressures
Cost pressures (heart attack v statin cost)
Patient perception (and processing ability)
Our skills in explaining it!
What are the 4 issues associated with innumeracy?
The illusion of certainty - thinking in terms of ‘definitely’
Ignorance of risk - not understanding what the statistics mean
Miscommunication of risk - our failure to explain the risk in a meaningful way
Clouded thinking - patient unable to understand how it will change his life
What issues do unnecessary screening tests bring about?
Anxiety
Costs
Unnecessary invasive tests
