Know Your Chances: Understanding Health Statistics - Softcover

Woloshin, Steven; Schwartz, Lisa M.; Welch M.D. M.P.H., H. Gilbert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520252225 ISBN 13: 9780520252226

Verlag: University of California Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Every day we are bombarded by television ads, public service announcements, and media reports warning of dire risks to our health and offering solutions to help us lower those risks. But many of these messages are incomplete, misleading, or exaggerated, leaving the average person misinformed and confused. "Know Your Chances" is a lively, accessible, and carefully researched book that can help consumers sort through this daily barrage by teaching them how to interpret the numbers behind the messages.In clear and simple steps, the authors - all of them staff physicians at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont - take the mystery out of medical statistics., By learning to understand the medical statistics and knowing what questions to ask, readers will be able to see through the hype and find out what - if any - credible information remains. The book's easy-to-understand charts will help ordinary people put their health concerns into perspective. This short, reader-friendly volume will foster communication between patients and doctors and provide the basic critical-thinking skills necessary for navigating today's confusing health landscape.

Über diesen Titel

Críticas:

"Short and simple... Present(s) the basic skills necessary in navigating today's confusing health-media landscape. " Library Journal " Delightful and educational reading, simple enough for laypeople to understand yet academic enough to meet the needs of ... students." -- L. Synovitz Choice "Know Your Chances is an accessible and empowering text." Journal Of Biosocial Science "A great reminder that ... medical claims should always be evaluated by how they affect you and your current state of health." Tampa Tribune "A great reminder that ... medical claims should always be evaluated by how they affect you and your current state of health." Highlands Today "Read this book first and then think again." Time Magazine

Nota de la solapa:

"This is the book for anyone (and that's most of us) who has ever felt whipsawed by the incessant and often contradictory media reports of health threats and medical fixes. The authors—well-known experts in risk analysis—take readers by the hand and show them in easy-to-follow steps how to evaluate health stories and decide for themselves what really matters and what is merely hype. A valuable and unique contribution."—Marcia Angell, MD, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine

"We have a deluge of medical information coming from caregivers, drug companies, and the media. Some of this is accurate and important, some misleading and irrelevant. This concise and clearly written primer gives us a strategy to navigate through these data and arrive at an intelligent understanding of what we need for our health and what we can forgo."—Jerome Groopman, MD, author of How Doctors Think

"Valuable to any patient or prospective patient, from junior high schoolers to senior citizens."—Joel Best, author of Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data

"Many people have an interest in making you unnecessarily afraid about diseases you're not likely to get or cause you to have unrealistic expectations about the benefits of treatment. This book gives you the skills to make your own judgments about these claims. It provides a roadmap for deciphering the kinds of statistics that keep us from making truly informed decisions."—Maryann Napoli, Associate Director of Center for Medical Consumers

"The authors have done a remarkable job of dispelling the clouds that often separate people from the medical information that they need. Know Your Chances reflects the authors' confidence that, with a little help, people can make sound decisions about their own health."—Baruch Fischhoff, author of Acceptable Risk

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: University of California Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0520252225
• ISBN 13: 9780520252226
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 158