RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Words or numbers? The evaluation of probability expressions in general practice.
JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JO J R Coll Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 98
OP 100
VO 39
IS 320
A1 B J O'Brien
YR 1989
UL http://bjgp.org/content/39/320/98.abstract
AB A sample of 56 general practitioners were asked to rate, on a percentage scale, 23 words or phrases which denote frequency or likelihood. The hypothetical context of the exercise was that of communicating to patients the probability of a side-effect (headache) arising from an unspecified prescription medicine. Median phrase ratings ranged from 'never' at 0% to 'certain' at 95% with a 50% rating given to the phrase 'reasonable chance'. Despite relatively large variance in ratings between respondents, the median ratings of a number of phrases were similar, and some identical, to other studies from different medical professionals. Although the clinical context in which a given expression of probability is used may affect its meaning, the results are encouraging and suggest that phrases denoting likelihood might be systematically codified to enhance communication between doctor and patient. To move towards this objective more research is needed to evaluate how patients interpret expressions of probability, and the relative effectiveness of different modes of communicating likelihood.