| Who profits from visual aids: overcoming challenges in people's understanding of risks [corrected]. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 20116159 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
Many people have difficulties grasping numerical concepts that are prerequisites for understanding treatment risk reduction. Visual aids have been proposed as a promising method for enhancing comprehension. In a survey of probabilistic, nationally representative samples in two different countries (United States and Germany), we compared the effectiveness of adding different types of visual aids (icon arrays and bar graphs representing either affected individuals only or the entire population at risk) to the numerical information in either an absolute or a relative risk reduction format. We also analyzed whether people's numeracy and graphical literacy skills affected the efficacy of the visual aids. Our results showed large improvements in accuracy both when icon arrays and when bar graphs were added to numerical information. Highest increases were achieved when the visual aids depicted the entire population at risk. Importantly, visual aids were most useful for the participants who had low numeracy but relatively high graphical literacy skills. Building on previous research showing that problems with understanding numerical information often do not reside in people's minds, but in the representation of the problem, our results show that visual aids help to modify incorrect expectations about treatment risk reduction. Our results have important implications for medical practice. |
| | |
Authors:
|
Rocio Garcia-Retamero; Mirta Galesic |
Related Documents
:
|
7719059 - Staffing and staff performance in services for people with severe or profound learning ... 7480489 - Perceptions of disability by students, the formerly obese, and the general community. 7510459 - The use of a visual aid to check anaesthetic machines. is performance improved? 12755939 - Correlates of specific childhood feeding problems. 12813789 - An examination of the role of clinical psychology in meeting the needs of young disable... 15345059 - Disability weights for the burden of oral disease in south australia. 21569569 - Suicide epidemics: the impact of newly emerging methods on overall suicide rates- a tim... 18534349 - Havelock ellis, eugenicist. 1245809 - A simple procedure for positioning precordial ecg and vcg electrodes using an electrode... |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Date: 2010-01-28 |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: Social science & medicine (1982) Volume: 70 ISSN: 1873-5347 ISO Abbreviation: Soc Sci Med Publication Date: 2010 Apr |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2010-03-08 Completed Date: 2010-04-21 Revised Date: 2010-05-10 |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 8303205 Medline TA: Soc Sci Med Country: England |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 1019-25 Citation Subset: IM |
Copyright Information:
|
(c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Affiliation:
|
University of Granada, Experimental Psychology, Campus Universitario de Cartuja s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain. rretamer@ugr.es |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
Adult Aged Audiovisual Aids* Comprehension Cross-Cultural Comparison* Female Germany Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Humans Male Medical Illustration Middle Aged Patient Education as Topic / methods* Questionnaires Risk Assessment* United States |
| Comments/Corrections | |
Erratum In:
|
Soc Sci Med. 2010 Jun;70(12):2097 |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Which carers of family members at the end of life need more support from health services and why?
Next Document: Framing disease: The example of female hypoactive sexual desire disorder.