Risk Communication
Risk communication can be understood, on the one hand, as a complex strategic decision-making problem. On the other hand, risk communication is understood as an “exchange of information about health risks and hazards – often during an emergency – that advances risk awareness and understanding and promotes health-protective behaviors among individuals, communities, and institutions” (Weaver et al. 2008). In consumer health protection, risk communication focuses on health risks and participatory dialogue with different stakeholders such as diverse target groups in the population, but also informs policy makers, associations, and NGOs about these risks. The aim is for the recipients to make informed and autonomous decisions (Bruine de Bruin and Bostrom 2013, Morgan et al. 2002).
The Non-Event
A non-event is an event that was largely avoided and its adverse consequences significantly mitigated due to a successful interaction of early risk detection, risk assessment, risk communication and risk management. The present research project focuses on the interplay of risk assessment and risk communication in consumer health protection. Non-events pose a particular challenge for risk assessment and risk communication because the actual health risks to consumers and society in terms of probabilities of occurrence and consequences are not directly observable due to the success of prevention and treatment measures. At the measurement and evaluation level, this leads to the problem that the health costs of a crisis must be estimated based on counterfactual assumptions or hypothetical crisis scenarios without prevention and treatment measures. In addition, a high degree of aleatory uncertainty must be assumed with respect to the individual health risk.
Another challenge posed by non-events occurs at the individual level of perception of health risks, as behavioral and psychological research shows that the perception of risks is subject to numerous cognitive biases and depends on individual information needs (risk competence, expectations, attitudes). Thus, even when the evidence regarding a health risk is relatively certain, it is uncertain how the assessment and communication of this consumer-related health risk will actually be perceived by the public and which public reactions and mitigation strategies can be expected. In addition, there is the problem that the successful avoidance or mitigation of a crisis may lead to questioning of the risk and the measures taken due to the absence of the expected individual and societal consequences (“prevention paradox”).
Research Questions
The following questions therefore emerge: How can non-events and corresponding prevention measures be made visible through effective risk communication? How can risk communication be designed effectively even in the face of perception distortions and heterogeneous individual information needs within different stakeholder groups? To what extent can the results be used for reputation management of an actor in consumer health protection? The research group contributes to answering these questions with a scientific investigation based on a theory-driven empirical and experimental mix of methods.
Our Approach
In general, the evaluation of health and quality of life is performed using the standard approaches of finance and health economics, such as cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis (e.g., in the form of QALYs/Quality-Adjusted-Life-Years and DALYs/Disability-Adjusted-Life-Years), and cost-benefit analysis. Experimental approaches (e.g., standard gamble or time trade-off) are used to generate the valuations needed for these purposes (e.g., for achieving a particular health status, for avoiding exposure to a pollutant, or for reducing uncertainty in the food chain) and to calculate a measure that can be interpreted ordinally or cardinally. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) calculates DALYs in a standardized way, taking into account, for example, hygiene standards – an area that is essential in food safety and thus in consumer health protection.
The present research project further develops the standard approaches for the assessment of non-events by including different forms of uncertainty (including aleatory uncertainty) and complements the standard approaches with subjective approaches that take possible perceptual biases such as framing effects and heterogeneous information needs into account. On the one hand, important insights for effective risk communication are generated from the theoretical and empirical analysis of the interactions between the preconceptions and expectations of the recipients of risk communication and the information communicated in the form of statements, FAQs, information and press releases. On the other hand, calculating the costs and benefits of non-events and thus the value of preventive measures can improve the reputation of a player in consumer health protection. This requires the development of communication approaches, which in turn are based on the meaning of DALYs and QALYs (as types of HALYs/Health-Adjusted Life Years) for specific target groups and their health information behavior. Of particular interest are questions about 1) what type of information is communicated in the context of DALYs and QALYs and 2) how this information is presented. To answer these questions, both institutions plan to work together.
References
de Bruin, W. B., and Bostrom, A. (2013): „Assessing what to address in science communication”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (Supplement 3), 14062-14068.
Morgan, M. G., Fischhoff, B., Bostrom, A., and Atman, C. J. (2002): Risk Communication: A Mental Models Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Weaver, J. B., Weaver, S. S., and Di Clemente, R. (2008): „Risk communication“, in: Heggenhougen, H. K., and Quah, S. (Eds.): International Encyclopedia of Public Health, S. 601-606. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Letzte Änderung: 4. October 2023