How to Reduce the Effect of Framing on Messages About Health

• Published in: Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM Vol. 25; no. 12; pp. 1323 - 1329
• Main Authors: Garcia-Retamero, Rocio, Galesic, Mirta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.12.2010; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Communication; Decision Making; Female; General aspects; Germany - epidemiology; Health; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Surveys - methods; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Informed consent; Internal Medicine; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Original Research; Patient Education as Topic - methods; Perceptions; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Risk; Risk Factors; United States - epidemiology; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Visual aids; United States; Germany; medical decision making; numeracy; framing; visual aids; risk communication; risk perception; Immunopathology; Social perception; Decision making; AIDS; Immune deficiency; Literacy; risk communication: risk perception: numeracy; Quantitative information; Infection; Medicine; Viral disease; Public health; Communication
• ISSN: 0884-8734; 1525-1497
• DOI: 10.1007/s11606-010-1484-9

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Patients must be informed about risks before any treatment can be implemented. Yet serious problems in communicating these risks occur because of framing effects. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of different information frames when communicating health risks to people with high and low numeracy and determine whether these effects can be countered or eliminated by using different types of visual displays (i.e., icon arrays, horizontal bars, vertical bars, or pies). DESIGN Experiment on probabilistic, nationally representative US ( n  = 492) and German ( n  = 495) samples, conducted in summer 2008. OUTCOME MEASURES Participants’ risk perceptions of the medical risk expressed in positive (i.e., chances of surviving after surgery) and negative (i.e., chances of dying after surgery) terms. KEY RESULTS Although low‐numeracy people are more susceptible to framing than those with high numeracy, use of visual aids is an effective method to eliminate its effects. However, not all visual aids were equally effective: pie charts and vertical and horizontal bars almost completely removed the effect of framing. Icon arrays, however, led to a smaller decrease in the framing effect. CONCLUSIONS Difficulties with understanding numerical information often do not reside in the mind, but in the representation of the problem.