Risk Communication Flashcards
What is risk communication?
an interactive process of exchange of information and opinions among individuals, groups, and institutions
involves multiple messages about the nature of risk and other messages that express concerns, opinions, or reactions to risk messages as well as information on what to do to control/manage the (health) risk
What is necessary for patients to appreciate the importance of health risks?
the understanding that there is no certainty in the first place
How can we help patients communicate and be understood?
strip it down (refrain from medical jargon, decrease language complexity)
mix it up (be interactive, ask open ended questions, provide an illness narrative, context matters, monitor and consciously adapt communication)
bring it home (contextualize it, take things from abstract to concrete, important for people with low literacy, make the information personal, use drawings, models, or devices)
paralinguistics and non-verbals (modify meaning and convey emotions, can be used to convey attentiveness, pay attention to loudness, intonation, and calm vs urgent)
How do people make decisions according to Tversky and Kahneman?
representativenesss (degree to which a particular outcome is typical or representative of all outcomes)
availability (assess probability by which the ease that instance is brought to mind)
anchoring (person adjusts to a current interpretation of risk based on a prior notion to which base that probability)
*note that any risk given may become a binary interpretation
How do you present risk?
positive vs negative; quantitative vs qualitative proportion vs percent (these can have different impact on decision made by clients)
use plain language (eliminate clinical or statistical jargon; focused information)
use absolute instead of relative risk
use frequencies over percentages
describe incremental risk instead of baseline
Order matters (careful about what you say last)
sometimes less is more
breakdown life into binary choices
include timeline of risk
keep in mind the cognitive burden of the information you’re providing
How should informed consent fit in to risk disclosures?
the process of informed consent is as important as the documentation
encourage questions
use the teach back method
