ReviewMedical care research and review : MCRR2013
Conceptual, methodological, and ethical problems in communicating uncertainty in clinical evidence.
Review in Medical care research and review : MCRR, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Diagnostic uncertainty in primary care: what is known about its communication, and what are the associated ethical issues?Family practice · 2021Pooled it
- Message reactance as a mediator of effects of alcohol and cancer risk messages.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Warning label messages about the cancer risk associated with alcohol: Effects of causal language.Addictive behaviors · 2025Trial
- Trial
- A randomized experimental study to test the effects of discussing uncertainty during cancer genetic counseling: different strategies, different outcomes?European journal of human genetics : EJHG · 2021Trial
- The effect of information on prostate cancer screening decision process: a discrete choice experiment.BMC health services research · 2020Trial
- Updated International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS version 5.0): modified Delphi, evidence informed consensus process.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Article
- Uncertainty tolerance in healthcare: towards a normative conception.Theoretical medicine and bioethics · 2026Article
- Clinical Reasoning Uncertainty in Veterinary Medical Encounters with a Clinical Example.Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Review
- Communicating Numeric Risk Information to Patients.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Twelve Tips to Train Medical Students to Manage Their Uncertainty and to Provide Reassurance to Patients and Their Caregivers.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- How Inclusive Are Patient Decision Aids for People with Limited Health Literacy? An Analysis of Understandability Criteria and the Communication about Options and Probabilities.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2025Article
- Unclear Trajectory and Uncertain Benefit: Creating a Lexicon for Clinical Uncertainty in Patients with Critical or Advanced Illness Using a Delphi Consensus Process.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2025Article
- "What's Going to Happen?": Internal Medicine Resident Experiences of Uncertainty in the Care of Older Adults.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Laypersons' understanding of statistical concepts commonly used in prescription drug promotion: A review of the research literature.Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP · 2024Article
- Article
- Readiness for HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis (PEP) Decision Making Following Sexual Violence.Issues in mental health nursing · 2024Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
The communication of uncertainty in clinical evidence is an important endeavor that poses difficult conceptual, methodological, and ethical problems. Conceptual problems include logical paradoxes in the meaning of probability and "ambiguity"--second-order uncertainty arising from the lack of reliability, credibility, or adequacy of probability information. Methodological problems include questions about optimal methods for representing fundamental uncertainties and for communicating these uncertainties in clinical practice. Ethical problems include questions about whether communicating uncertainty enhances or diminishes patient autonomy and produces net benefits or harms. This article reviews the limited but growing literature on these problems and efforts to address them and identifies key areas of focus for future research. It is argued that the critical need moving forward is for greater conceptual clarity and consistent representational methods that make the meaning of various uncertainties understandable, and for clinical interventions to support patients in coping with uncertainty in decision making.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.