Help patients maintain a critical eye and understand that attention-grabbing headlines or attractive advertisements may present risk information that is inconsistent, biased, or untrue. Find out the patient's goal of treatment. When patients bring in an article or advertisement, find out why this piece of information is of interest to them. Understand what the patient's goal of treatment is and discuss risks and benefits in terms of his or her priorities. Pay attention to phrasing.
Data can sound better or worse depending on how healthcare professionals talk about it.
Phrasing can subtly affect how you convey risk, and as a clinician you need to pay attention to word choice. Talk about risk over time. It makes a big difference whether risk figures are calculated over a year, ten years, or a lifetime. Educate patients about relative versus absolute risk. Risk can be expressed in terms of relative risk or absolute risk, and Col often uses simple analogies to help patients understand these concepts.