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Description Communicating Health Risks to the Public: A Global Perspective by Dawn Hillier Language: English | Format: PDF | ISBN-10: 0566086727 | ISBN-13: 978-0566086724 Page count: 166 | Date Published: May 23, 2016 | Publisher: Gower  Medical Books, Administration & Medicine Economics, Health Care Delivery CONTENTS Cover Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 View from the Global Village 3 Cultural Meaning of Risk 4 How Do We Perceive Risks? 5 The Art and Science of Health Risk Communication 6 Amplification of Risk: Styles and Approaches to Contemporary Health Risk Communication 7 Fast Cars and Cool Cigarettes – Resilience of Risky Behaviour in Young People 8 Risk Communication and the Media 9 Social Life of Risk Communication 10 Communication Shapes the World Bibliography Index Excerpt: The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified ten leading risk factors for preventable death and disease worldwide: maternal and child underweight; unsafe sex; high blood pressure; tobacco; alcohol; unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene; high cholesterol; indoor smoke from solid fuels; iron deficiency; and high body mass index (BMI), or overweight. WHO hypothesises that 40 per cent of deaths worldwide are due to these ten risk factors alone; global healthy life expectancy could be increased by five to ten years if individuals, communities, health systems and governments took action to reduce these risks by attending to behaviour- change strategies and actions. These actions depend on a complex set of human and societal processes. This chapter provides a broad overview of risk focusing on the various dimensions that affect health risk. These range from consideration of aspects of the risk society, medical- ecology, economics, environmental, socio-political, human-emotional, technological, legal and regulatory (threshold risks), epidemiological mobility to accessibility of health care. Without risk there is no opportunity for gain Controversies about risks to public health regularly attract news headlines, whether about food safety, environmental issues, medical interventions, or lifestyle risks such as drinking. To those trying to manage or regulate risks, public reactions sometimes seem bizarre. To the public, the behaviour of those supposedly in charge can seem no less strange. Trust is currently at a premium. Risk has become big business with thousands of consultants providing advice on ‘risk assessment’, ‘risk analysis’, ‘risk management’ and ‘risk communication’. The media has become increasingly interested in the subject and terms such as ‘risk society’ and ‘risk perception’ regularly grace the pages of newspaper columns and feature on television documentaries and news programmes. According to Furedi (2002, 5) there are so many apparently expert voices attempting to alert us to new dangers that their advice often seems to conflict and thus confusion reigns over exactly what is safe and what is risky. Safety has become one of the fundamental values of our age. For Furedi (2002, 1), passions that once drove the struggle to change the world (or to keep it the same), are now invested in trying to make sure that we are safe. The label ‘safe’ gives new meaning to a whole range of human activities, endowing them with unspoken qualities that are meant to merit our automatic approval. For example, ‘safe sex’ is not just sex practised safely – it implies an entire attitude towards sex and life in general. Moreover, personal safety is a growth industry with hardly a day going by without some new risk to the individual being reported, and another safety measure proposed. Sharing Widget |