| Title | Risk in public health | |
| Authors | Kleanthi Gourounti and Katerina Lykeridou
Department of Midwifery, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Ag. Spyridonos, Egaleo, Athens, Greece |
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| Citation | Gourounti, Κ., Lykeridou, Κ.: Risk In public health, Epitheorese Klin. Farmakol. Farmakokinet. 19(2): 93-97 (2005) | |
| Publication Date | Received for publication: : 23 March 2005
Accepted for publication: 12 May 2005 |
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| Full Text Language | English | |
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| Keywords | Risk, risk assessment, risk perception, risk communication, risk management, prevention, public health. | |
| Other Terms | review article | |
| Summary | Risk is a probability of an adverse outcome or a factor that raises this probability. Over the past 20 years a number of definitions of risk have been proposed and it is noticed that all the definitions are referred to a probabilistic and a hazardous aspect. Most of the scientific effort and the financial resources are dedicated to treatment than prevention. Focusing on risk management is the key element to preventing disease and injury. Risk management usually applied to the whole process of risk identification, estimation, evaluation, reduction and control and has the aim to control and reduce the hazards to an acceptable level, to reduce the level of uncertainty in decision making about risks and to increase public trust in risk matters. Risk assessment is called a set of activities that include the focusing on the identification, quantification and characterization of the risk and usually is influenced by individuals’ perceptions concerning risks. The perception of risk is influenced from peoples’ beliefs, attitudes, judgments and feelings and also from biological characteristics of people like gender and age. Thus, the experts who will try to communicate the risk to the lay people must consider that the perception of risk among people varies and must adjust accordingly the way of risk communication. Control and minimization of risk demand not only the assessment of risk but also the successful cooperation and communication between experts and lay people. The effective risk communication will not succeed only the decrease of risk but also it will achieve the empowerment of the patients and the promotion of their autonomy in order for them to make an informed-sharing decision. | |
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Online ISSN 1011-6575
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Articles published in this Journal are Indexed or Abstracted in: • Chemical Abstracts • Elsevier’s Bibliographic Databases: Scopus, EMBASE, EMBiology, Elsevier BIOBASE SCImago Journal and Country Rank Factor
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