Risk Perception and Drug Safety Evaluation

The authors present a Risk communication framework based on a survey of empirical research concerning public Risk perceptions. They also apply it to the area of pharmaceutical regulation to suggest more effective regulatory strategies

General knowledge about climate change, factors influencing risk perception and willingness to insure

In two empirical surveys in Germany the link between the information respondents have about climate change and their risk perception of the phenomenon was analysed. We found that a better understanding of the effects of climate change might lead to a decrease of the perceived hazard. In contrast, a high self-declared knowledge about climate change might correspond with higher risk perception. Further factors affecting the risk perception of climate change are gender, experience of extreme weather events and trust in external aid. Surprisingly, information campaigns based on scientific facts are not effective for increasing risk perception and willingness to insure. Higher risk perception might induce higher interest in precautionary measures like insurance. --Climate Change,Knowledge Illusion,Insurance,Risk Perception,Information,Psychometric paradigm

Terrorism Risk Concern in Europe

We explore whether differences of terrorism risk perception across all European countries reflect their underlying differences in terrorism risk, which we decompose into a long term and innovation component. We employ longitudinal country-level data on terrorism risk concern and our modeling approach is motivated by the Bayesian framework. We conclude that the observed risk perception variation is significantly explained by the long term terrorism countries face, while the cyclical part of terrorism activity does not affect risk perception.

Vaccine Risk Communication: Lessons from Risk Perception, Decision Making and Environmental Risk Communication Research

Dr. Bostrom reviews the rich variety of empirical findings available to guide risk communication and demonstrates how it can contribute to vaccine risk and safety communication

MEASURING HISTORICAL RISK IN QUARTERLY MILK PRICES

Various methods have been used to estimate risk indices with historical data. An industry perception of increasing milk price risk over time provides a standard for evaluating several techniques used to measure historical risk. Risk measures from a regression model and an ARIMA model were consistent with the perception of increasing risk.Risk and Uncertainty,

Knowledge and Perception of Coronary Artery Disease in High-Risk Women

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in America and kills more women each year than all other cancers combined. While women’s level of awareness of heart disease has increased, they often do not perceive their risk of heart disease accurately, nor do they understand the importance of adopting heart-healthy behaviors to reduce risk. Objective: By implementing a combination of counseling from a health care provider and computer-based tailored education, this project aimed to test the effectiveness of using the Go Red for Women™ Heart CheckUp as an educational intervention for high-risk women to increase the accurate perception of risk, improve CAD knowledge, and increase intent to make behavioral changes. Methods and Discussion: Twenty-one women with a history of CAD, myocardial infarction, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, or coronary artery bypass grafting completed the Go Red for Women™ Heart CheckUp tool and rated their perception of risk from CAD and belief that they could change their risk both before and after the tool. There was an increase in perception of risk and belief in change after the tool. Qualitative data showed participants were educated about CAD. Conclusion: The Go Red for Women™ Heart Check-up tool was shown to be useful in educating high-risk women about their cardiac risk and in promoting heart-healthy behaviors