LISS Grant 2020. Authors: Ruben Vromans, Emiel Krahmer, Steffen Pauws (Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences)
Communicating probability information about risks and benefits of health interventions or treatment options to patients is becoming an essential part of modern-day health care. In light of the growing emphasis of personalized medicine and patient-centered shared decision-making, there has been rapid growth in the development of personalized health information tools for patients, with the aim of providing patients personalized risks and health statistics adjusted to their clinical and sociodemographic characteristics. Despite great promise of such individualized data-driven tools, people have great difficulties in understanding and evaluating personalized health statistics, especially those with low health literacy and/or numeracy skills. In addition, it is not clear which factors in the presentation of personalized health information promote effective communication, and also to whom. Therefore, the aim of the present study is twofold: (1) to determine the effects of comparative information and visual aids of personalized health information on people’s risk perception, affective evaluation, and decision-making; and (2) to examine whether the effects differ for people with different levels of health literacy and numeracy skills.