The frame and name of the medical treatment and their influence on health decisions
The frame and name of the medical treatment and their influence on health decisions

Summary/Abstract: Decisions about one’s own health range from everyday easy ones, such as taking a vitamin pill, to those made in the situations of life-threatening diseases. When it comes to choosing treatments, patients have difficulty understanding statistical information aboutthe possible outcomes of alternative treatments, such as probabilities and risks. Thesechallenges are especially important in the context of the shared decision-making. Theaim of this study was to examine the influence of the labelling of the treatment in riskychoice decision tasks. The risky choice framing effect (FE) pertains to the systematicpreference reversal because different aspects of formally identical situations areemphasized. In the present study, the participants made a forced choice between a nonriskyand risky treatment presented in terms of gains and losses. In the first conditionsurgery was the risky option and in the second it was radiation. In the third condition,the treatments’ labels were replaced with ’A’ and ’B’. Chi-square tests revealed a significantdifference in the proportions of risky choices between the three conditions. The FE wasregistered only in the first and the second condition, and it was moderate and strong,respectively. When choosing between surgery and radiation, participants’ choices wereindeed influenced by the naming of the treatment, but not exclusively – they generallypreferred surgery, and when it was offered in terms of losses, they preferred it even more.

• Details
• Contents