title: [Risk perception and risk communication in environmental medicine].
abstract: Environmental medicine requires special communicative talents in order to inform about risks, to change risk-related behavior or to reassure people with excessive risk-related anxieties. We provide some guidance on how to accomplish these communication tasks. First, the results of psychological risk perception research are outlined, and the cognitive and affective factors, which determine laypeople's risk appraisal, are explained. Then, the basic problems of risk communication are described and the tasks and duties of medical risk communication are specified: How can risk information be indicated in an appropriate way? Which risk comparisons can be provided to enhance understanding? What are the advantages and drawbacks of risk comparisons? What criteria can be used to evaluate the quality of risk assessment studies? What are the Do's and Dont's of risk communication? And, how should anxieties about risks be approached?
authors.affiliation: Forschungszentrum Jülich.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Wiedemann
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schütz
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005858:Germany; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010819:Physician's Role; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors