What do we know about communicating risk? A brief review and suggestion for contextualising serious but rare risk and the example of cox-2 selective and non-selective NSAIDs

摘要

BackgroundCommunicating risk is difficult. Although different methods have been proposed – using numbers, words, pictures or combinations – none has been extensively tested. We used electronic and bibliographic searches to review evidence concerning risk perception and presentation. People tend to underestimate common risk and overestimate rare risk; they respond to risks primarily on the basis of emotion rather than facts, seem to be risk averse when faced with medical interventions, and want information on even the rarest of adverse events.