Jungermann H, Schütz H, Thüring M
Institut für Psychologie, Technische Universität Berlin, West Germany.
Risk Anal. 1988 Mar;8(1):147-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1988.tb01161.x.
One way to communicate about the risks of drugs is through the use of package inserts. The problems associated with this medium of informing patients have been investigated by several researchers who found that people require information about drugs they are using, including extensive risk information, and that they are willing to take this information into account in their usage of drugs. But empirical results also show that people easily misinterpret the information given. A conceptual framework is proposed that might be used for better understanding the cognitive processes involved in such a type of risk assessment and communication. It is based on the idea that people develop, through experience, a mental model of how a drug works, which effects it might produce, that contraindications have to be considered, etc. This mental model is "run" when a specific package insert has been read and a specific question arises such as, for example, whether certain symptoms can be explained as normal or whether they require special attention and action. We argue that the mental model approach offers a useful perspective for examining how people understand package inserts, and consequently for improving their content and design. The approach promises to be equally useful for other aspects of risk analysis that are dependent upon human judgment and decision making, e.g., threat diagnosis and human reliability analysis.
传达药物风险的一种方式是通过使用药品说明书。几位研究人员对与这种告知患者的媒介相关的问题进行了调查，他们发现人们需要有关正在使用的药物的信息，包括详尽的风险信息，并且他们愿意在用药时考虑这些信息。但实证结果也表明，人们很容易误解所提供的信息。本文提出了一个概念框架，该框架可用于更好地理解此类风险评估和沟通中所涉及的认知过程。它基于这样一种观点，即人们通过经验形成一个关于药物如何起作用、可能产生哪些效果、必须考虑哪些禁忌症等的心理模型。当阅读了特定的药品说明书并出现特定问题时，例如某些症状能否被解释为正常情况，或者它们是否需要特别关注和采取行动，这个心理模型就会被“运行”。我们认为，心理模型方法为研究人们如何理解药品说明书提供了一个有用的视角，从而有助于改进其内容和设计。该方法有望对依赖于人类判断和决策的风险分析的其他方面同样有用，例如威胁诊断和人的可靠性分析。
