Vaccine and disease risk communications
Faced with an increasing number of vaccines and vaccination choices, some parents want relatively detailed information about the risks of vaccines, as well as their effectiveness and alternatives to vaccination. Other parents want summary information that suggests what experts would choose for their children. Policy makers as well as parents are faced with risk tradeoffs for each of these choices. As more vaccines are introduced, as our knowledge of individual variability and susceptibility increases, and as diseases burdens disappear in some parts of the world, these tradeoffs are likely to demand more attention. This paper describes an approach to communicating about such tradeoffs that takes into account parents' understanding, or 'mental models' of the risks, as well as the likely effects of presenting qualitative versus quantitative risk information.
Learning Objectives: 1) Improve the general understanding of pediatric environmental health risk communication in different settings. 2) Describe the importance of prior understanding of risk communication recipients 3) Raise the awareness of risk-risk tradeoffs
Keywords: Children, Risk Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None