Abstract
Health care news coverage can educate and inform the public and help people make smarter health care decisions. But it can also confuse public discussion on public health, health care and health policy concerns. Studies have shown that health care news stories often exaggerate benefits and minimize harms or risks.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Communicating Risks and Benefits |
| Subtitle of host publication | An Evidence-Based Users Guide |
| Editors | Baruch Fischhoff, Noel T. Brewer, Julie S. Downs |
| Publisher | Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Department of Health and Human Services |
| Pages | 185-193 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780160915765 |
| State | Published - 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Effective risk communication is essential to the well-being of any organization and those people who depend on it. Ineffective communication can cost lives, money and reputations.Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guide provides the scientific foundations for effective communications. The book authoritatively summarizes the relevant research, draws out its implications for communication design, and provides practical ways to evaluate and improve communications for any decision involving risks and benefits.
Topics include the communication of quantitative information and warnings, the roles of emotion and the news media, the effects of age and literacy, and tests of how well communications meet the organization’s goals. The guide will help users in any organization, with any budget, to make the science of their communications as sound as the science that they are communicating.
Keywords
- Risk Communication
- Communication Studies
- Evidence-based health care
- Evidence-based decision-making