Risk communication and behaviour - in context of genetic and personalized information

Abstract

Aims: - to present state-of-art evidence on whether and when risk information has effect on behaviour. - to demonstrate how risk perception is related to behaviour in different settings. - to discuss how different genomic risk information could be used in the most appropriate way in health promotion and health services. Rationale: Among policy makers and lay people, there is a strong belief that communicating health risks to people will have positive impact on their health behaviour. However, research evidence has indicated to the contrary, and that in certain situations, informing about even high actual risks does not lead to behaviour change. The presentations of this symposium will provide an overview on the current evidence on risk information and behaviour change, and present suggestions how risk communication could be improved to make an impact in health promotion and health care settings. Summary: The first presentation examines how risk perception of contagious disease is related to social behaviour using social network analyses. Next talk investigates, using meta-analysis, whether DNA-based risk information affects behaviour change. This is extended in next presentation to all personalized risk information, using systematic reviews. The fourth presentation compares two approaches to communicate autosomal heritable disease risk among Lynch syndrome families and how these can improve screening behaviour. In the last presentation, attitudes and risk perceptions for preconception carrier screening is examined in population-based survey.