In their publication “Using Numerical Comparisons to Help Patients Make Choices”, Ellen Peters and Nadine S. Jennings explore different approaches for clinicians to communicate more effectively with patients and foster decision-making processes.
The authors mention that clinicians often focus on presenting key risk factors or on the most successful approach to risk reduction disregarding alternatives when presenting test results to patients. Plain numerical medical data, while accessible to clinicians, can be too abstract and foreign to patients for it to have a meaningful impact. However, results can become tangible to patients if they are put into perspective thought the introduction of a numerical comparison. A numerical comparison explains a medical number by putting it next to another number that people can relate to. Such comparisons can help patients interpret abstract numbers, guiding their risk perceptions and making information easier to use during decision‑making.
By providing numerical comparisons, clinician scan highlights differences in risk-benefit ratios that may allow patients to better understand their clinical situation and inform their decision-making about treatment and other medical options.
Link to the full article: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2845913
