 Risk Perceptions and their relation to Risk Behavior Article by: Noel T. Brewer, PhD., Neil D. Weisntein, PhD and Cara L. Cuite, PhD Yazmin Brambila

Outline  Introduction  Risk Perception/Behavior hypothesis  Accuracy hypothesis  Behavior hypothesis  Risk Reappraisal hypothesis  Model of risk perception and behavior  Method  Results  Conclusions

Introduction  Perceived risk can affect protective behavior and protective behavior can affect perceived risk because of the complexity of these constructs incorrect tests often lead to invalid conclusions  Perceived risk is a central construct of most theories of health behavior  How is this question assessed?

Risk Perception/Behavior Hypothesis  3 hypotheses tested  Behavior motivation hypothesis  Risk reappraisal hypothesis  Accuracy hypothesis

Accuracy Hypothesis (AH)  Asserts that perceptions of risk at any given time properly reflect one’s risk factors at that time. It is a descriptive statement about the relation between risk perceptions and behavior but it does not imply any causal connection between these constructs.  Correlation often misinterpreted as a test of behavior  Cross sectional design  Useful for identifying information deficits and the need for public or patient education

 Describes the effects of perceptions of risk on changes of behavior. This hypothesis is about cause and effect  For example:  “I feel at risk for Lyme disease, so ill get vaccinated”  Longitudinal design

 Describes the effects of changes in behavior on changes in perceived risk.  Increasing preventive behavior leads to lower perceived risk  An example:  “Now that I am vaccinated, my risk is lower”  Risk questions need to specify a behavioral context  Longitudinal design

Model of Risk Perception/Behavior

Method  Participants  3 cities  1005 start  745 at follow up  Heard about Lyme Disease  Not vaccinated  Procedures and Measures  Telephone interviews  Questions were asked to assess perceived risk

Results  Behavior hypothesis was supported by the data  People that perceive risk to be high at time 1 were more likely to be vaccinated by time 2  Accuracy Hypothesis was also supported.  People who had been vaccinated perceived lower risk at time 2  Risk Reappraisal was also supported

Conclusion  BMH: the odds ratio (OR) of 5.81 meaning that those with high initial risk perceptions were about 6 times more likely to get vaccinated than those with low initial risk perceptions  Higher risk judgment appear to encourage people to engage in protective behavior  AH: The odds ration (OR) of.44 meaning that one group was 66% (1 minus.44) more likely to perceive lower risk than those that were not vaccinated  Risk perception “appear” to lead to vaccination because these are correlational findings  Members of the public often misinterpret their risk of health problems and correcting these misinterpretations are seen as a way to encourage healthy behavior  It s important to not confuse the behavior and risk perception hypothesis as it would lead to different/opposite outcomes  Complex relations between perceived risk and behavior require care in the information of risk questions, the choice of study design and the selection of the statistical procedures