Communicating Toxicogenomics Information to Nonexperts A Workshop Summary (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Summary of the Workshop
Summary of the Workshop
Pages 5-36
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. The workshop, titled "Communicating Toxicogenomics Information to Nonexperts," was held on April 22, 2004.
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Mr. Rothstein was followed by Robert Griffin, Marquette University, a planning committee member, who introduced the field of risk communication as an element of social science research.
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Littleinformationisavailableontoxicogenomicscommunication;thus, the workshop was not intended to develop consensus on the issues. However, the workshop was designed to provide useful background information on risk communication that may assist agencies and organizations in effectively communicating toxicogenomics information to the public.
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Not all factors that play a role in communicating toxicogenomics information to the public were discussed in the workshop. Other factors that may play a role in effectively communicating toxicogenomics information include risk perception and control issues (see Figure 1)
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Publicskepticismaboutscientificandgovernmentinstitutionsisachallenge to risk communication that cannot be ignored by scientists and policymakers. The ad hoc committee was interested primarily in exploring audiencebased approaches to toxicogenomics communications.
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In addition, he noted that as toxicogenomics deals with the complex biologic systems, researchers should be careful not to oversell the technology before its applications are well understood. These challenges make communicating toxicogenomics to the public complicated.
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Risk-communication theory deals with aspects of public participation, conflict resolution, risk assessment, and risk management. Effective risk communication is a two-way process involving the participation of and information exchange between the scientist and the nonexpert.
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Nonroutine information seeking includes behaviors that go beyond ordinary information channels, such as the mass media, to seek additional information, such as going to speak to a doctor. Information seeking may involve heuristic or systematic processing of the information that has been gathered.
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Nonroutine heuristic processing goes beyond routine information channels to gather information and to process it uncritically. A person may call someone special, such as a highly trusted expert, to seek advice about a risk.
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KasisomayajulaViswanath,HarvardSchoolofPublic Health, stated that "risk communication is a product of interactions among different groups, agencies, and institutions, as well as individuals." Each group or public may receive or use risk information in different ways and there are different audiences for different media; for example, some people prefer print media, some people use the Internet, and other people rely on television. "There are differences in media use among people," he said, "as well as in the way they use these media." For instance, information disseminated in one medium, such as television, may be responded to indifferentwaysby differentaudiences.
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Health disparities may also affect how different audiences perceive and access risk information. Effective risk-communication strategies must also address other audience concerns, including socioeconomic, educational, and communication disparities, such as the inability to reach some segments of society through specific media.
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Using genetically modified foods as an example of the need for public participation, Dr. Priest said that in the United States, and particularly in Europe, public opinion regarding research on and use of genetically modified foods has sometimes been negative.
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Another common myth of risk communication is that the more the public knows and understands about a technology, the more the technology will be appreciated.
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At the individual level, information sufficiency istheavailabilityofrisk-relatedinformationthatissufficientfor a person to make a decision, for example, on how to deal with a risk in daily life or whether to support science and public policy related to a risk, such as voting for an environmental referendum. The desire to achieve information sufficiency, and confidence in judgment, often motivates people to seek and process information (Eagly and Chaiken 1993)
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. People interpret health risks on the basis of observations of everyday events, discussions of disease prevalence within the community, and other sources, such as the mass media.
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Developing messages that take into account people's beliefs is a vitally important aspect of communicating toxicogenomics information to the public. Scientists involved in toxicogenomics research have a good opportunity to help frame the science for the public by emphasizing information about the technologies and data that they conclude would be beneficial for the public to understand and consider.
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Julie Downs, Carnegie Mellon University, discussed the use of mental models to assess systematically whatkindsofinformationareneededby the public and then to create messages to meet those needs. The mental-models approach has five steps: design integrated assessments of all the possible variables involved in the issue based on information from topic experts; gather information from the chosen audience; identify gaps, misconceptions, and critical problems in the audience's comprehension; develop interventions to correct problems (to present information relevant to decisions in a nonjudgmental tone)
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22 Communicating Toxicogenomics Information to Nonexperts perceived a fertility unsafe sex d beliefs e about STD b f actual c disease fertility FIGURE 2 Influence diagram depicting a model of the relationship between fertility and sexually transmitted diseases. Source: Fischhoff et al.
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. A concrete example of health disparities in the United States involves lung cancer rates among African Americans.
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. Although they are still in the early stages of development, smokingcessation programs that are based on finding a nicotine-dependence gene provide an example of the complexities of risk communication in populations that face health disparities.
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In particular, traditionally disadvantaged groups may access risk information differently, an important consideration given that they also may face health disparities that are informed by toxicogenomics information. Some Social Contexts Riskcommunicatorsmustknowhowdifferentaudiencesaccessvarious forms of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, direct mail, radio, television, and the Internet.
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Research on lung cancer and smoking in these groups has found that these groups perceive genetic information and counseling differently from other groups. For example, preliminary research has shown that African Americans often believe that genetic information is going to be harmful, whether or not they are familiar with it, whereas for white Americans, the more familiar they were with genetic information, the more receptive they were to genetic counseling (Furr 2002)
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will not be effective if the person who gets the message believes that he or she cannot do anything to reduce risk and therefore reduce fear. Some factors that are important for predicting affective responses to risk information include a sense of dread about the risk (which includes perceptions that it is uncontrollable, deadly, catastrophic, involuntary, and so forth)
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People are more suspicious of risks that are imposed on them by others or that they feel they cannot control. TRUST IN SCIENTIFIC AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND MASS-MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS Effective risk communication often depends on the audience's trust in scientific organizations, government agencies, and mass-media channels.
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WRAP UP: DEVELOPING TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE TOXICOGENOMICS COMMUNICATION The following is a summary of future research areas developed by the workshop discussants during their presentations and in group discussion. The concepts build on the theory and practice of risk communication presented earlier in the workshop.
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Evaluate audience responses to the message. FIGURE 3 Toxicogenomics risk communication: Steps to communicate science effectively.
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Dr. Lawrence noted that resources devoted to the following area would helpreducecommunicationbarriersandwouldassistinmakingtoxicogenomics information more accessible to diverse populations: reducing health disparities; determining the best way to make new information accessible to diverse populations; and integrating cross-disciplinary training in epidemiology, statistical genetics, risk assessment, and other related fields.
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If toxicogenomics is framed in a manner that highlights the applications of the technology as a potential disease-prevention or public-health tool, a favorable public response to the technology may result. An effective communication strategy may depend on the communicator's awareness that a person's initial experience with an issue is likely to shape all his or her later beliefs about it.
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Successful risk communication provides information via media that the intended audience can access readily and that meets the audience's needs for information to help them evaluate and deal with risks.
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Presentation at the Sixth Meeting on Emerging Issues and Data on Environmental Contaminants -- Communicating Toxicogenomics Information to Non-Experts: A Workshop, April 22, 2004, Washington, DC. Dunwoody, S
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Presentation at the Sixth Meeting on Emerging Issues and Data on Environmental Contami nants -- Communicating Toxicogenomics Information to Non-Experts: A Workshop, April 22, 2004, Washington, DC. Lerman, C., N.E.
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Presentation at the Sixth Meeting on Emerging Issues and Data on Environmental Contaminants -- Communicating Toxico genomics Information to Non-Experts: A Workshop, April 22, 2004, Wash ington, DC. Viswanath, K., and D.P.
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