Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28097734›Full record

ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2017

How lay people understand and make sense of personalized disease risk information.

Olga C Damman, Nina M M Bogaerts, Maaike J van den Haak, Danielle R M Timmermans

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Article
  5. Patient and Physician Perspectives on Using Risk Prediction to Support Breast Cancer Surveillance Decision Making.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Association of quantitative information and patient knowledge about prostate cancer outcomes.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2022
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Translating Cancer Risk Prediction Models into Personalized Cancer Risk Assessment Tools: Stumbling Blocks and Strategies for Success.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2020
    Article
  16. Article
  17. All things considered, my risk for diabetes is medium: A risk personalization process of familial risk for type 2 diabetes.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020
    Article
  18. Article
  19. How lay people understand and make sense of personalized disease risk information.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2017
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Olga C DammanDepartment of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-4482-5042
Nina M M BogaertsDepartment of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Maaike J van den HaakDepartment of Language, Literature and Communication, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Danielle R M TimmermansDepartment of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDisease risk calculators are increasingly web-based, but previous studies have shown that risk information often poses problems for lay users.

objectiveTo examine how lay people understand the result derived from an online cardiometabolic risk calculator.

designA qualitative study was performed, using the risk calculator in the Dutch National Prevention Program for cardiometabolic diseases. The study consisted of three parts: (i) attention: completion of the risk calculator while an eye tracker registered eye movements; (ii) recall: completion of a recall task; and (iii) interpretation: participation in a semi-structured interview. SETTING AND

participantsWe recruited people from the target population through an advertisement in a local newspaper; 16 people participated in the study, which took place in our university laboratory.

resultsEye-tracking data showed that participants looked most extensively at numerical risk information. Percentages were recalled well, whereas natural frequencies and verbal labels were remembered less well. Five qualitative themes were derived from the interview data: (i) numerical information does not really sink in; (ii) the verbal categorical label made no real impact on people; (iii) people relied heavily on existing knowledge and beliefs; (iv) people zoomed in on risk factors, especially family history of diseases; and (v) people often compared their situation to that of their peers. DISCUSSION AND

conclusionAlthough people paid attention to and recalled the risk information to a certain extent, they seemed to have difficulty in properly using this information for interpreting their risk.

Indexed as

ComprehensionAgedAge FactorsAttentionBody Mass IndexCardiovascular DiseasesEye MovementsFemaleHumansMaleMedical History TakingMental RecallMiddle AgedQualitative ResearchRisk AssessmentRisk Factorsinformed decision makinglay perspectivepatient educationpreventionrisk communication

Identifiers

PMID28097734
PMCPMC5600228

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.