title: The effect of numerical statements of risk on trust and comfort with hypothetical physician risk communication.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To contribute to the debate about whether numeric statements of risk ought to be included in risk communications.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects (n = 115) completed a questionnaire involving a physician risk communication and 4 scenarios, each of which described a patient with symptoms and signs potentially suggestive of cancer. Each scenario was presented in 3 risk communication versions (a verbal version and 2 numeric versions) in a within-subject 4 x 3 design. Subjects rated their trust in and comfort with the information and their belief that the physician distorted their risk level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects were significantly more trusting of (t =4.0, P < 0.001) and comfortable with (t =3.4, P = 0.001) the risk information, less likely to believe that the physician minimized the risk in the numeric versions than verbal versions (t =4.3, P < 0.0001), and just as likely to believe that the physician exaggerated the risk in the 2 versions (P = 0.588).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Including a numeric statement of risk in a risk communication can increase trust and belief in and comfort with the risk information.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. adg11@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Andrea D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Gurmankin
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baron
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012306:Risk; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust