title: Measuring risk perception among low-income minority primary care patients.
abstract: Studying patients' risk perceptions by ascertaining the probabilities of developing a disease is suboptimal, as patients might have difficulty using numerical expressions to depict the probabilities/chances of developing a disease. We surveyed patients at 2 community health centers and assessed risk perception by patients' self-reported chance of developing a disease (expressed in percentages), patients' relative chance of developing a disease compared to others' chance of developing a disease, and patients' ranked chances of developing different diseases. Many patients had difficulties understanding percentages and most patients overestimated their absolute risk. However, most patients indicated that they had a lower chance of developing diseases when compared to others. Patients with known risk factors (smoking) indicated a higher relative risk of developing an associated disease (lung cancer). Patients' ranked chances of developing different diseases were consistent with the actual frequency of developing a disease. Although patients had difficulty expressing risk in percentages, they estimated their risks well through comparisons with others and by ranking of disease frequencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, Ga 31207, USA. haomia@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haomiao
authors.forename: Annabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.forename: Erica Ilene
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Lubetkin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003151:Community Health Centers; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D009519:New York City; D011320:Primary Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment