Communication about cancer screening is dodgy: benefits are overstated and harms downplayed. Several techniques of persuasion are used. These include using the term “prevention” instead of “early detection,” thereby wrongly suggesting that screening reduces the odds of getting cancer. Reductions in relative, rather than absolute, risk are reported, which wrongly indicate that benefits are large. And reporting increases in 5 year survival rates wrongly implies that these correlate with falls in mortality. Another misleading practice is claiming that screening “saves lives” despite the lack of proof that overall mortality is decreased.
It's "time to change communication from dodgy persuasion to something straightforward."
Tools:
Option Grids are brief easy-to-read tools made to help patients and providers compare alternative treatment options. They help you find answers to the questions patients frequently ask. You need to register to use, but it is free. http://www.optiongrid.org
The Harding Center for Risk Management "Our aim is to study how people behave in risk situations. We believe that our work can contribute towards the ideal of a society that knows how to calculate risks and live with them."
About Risk Literacy: Technical Terms