Assessment of Risk Literacy Among German Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study Evaluating Numeracy Skills

作者：Friederichs Hendrik; Schoelling Markus; Marschall Bernhard; Weissenstein Anne^*

来源：Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, 2014, 20(4): 1139-1147.

DOI：10.1080/10807039.2013.821909

• numeracy
• Berlin Numeracy Test
• medical students
• risk literacy

For successful communication of risk-related disease and treatment modalities, sufficient competence in risk literacy is important. Medical students who will soon be in the responsible role of physicians need to comprehend numeric estimates of probability in order to explain them understandably to patients. Therefore, we have examined the risk literacy among German medical students in a cross-sectional study with 600 participants from the first to the sixth year. Four hundred thirty-four complete datasets (72.35%) could be retrieved. The measuring instrument was the Berlin Numeracy Test, in which a maximum of 4 points could be obtained. Participants achieved an average score of 2.03 points, which is significantly higher than the score defined by the Berlin Numeracy Test (1.6 points). A slight increase from the first (2.00 points) to the sixth academic year (2.38) was detected, which was not significant. In addition, participants who made notes achieved significantly higher test results (2.45) than students who did mental arithmetic (1.77). Male participants showed a significantly higher performance (2.36) than their female colleagues (1.72). Medical students possess a good basis in their risk literacy skills; however, more exercise in dealing with practical case studies is needed.

• 出版日期2014-7-4
• 单位河北医科大学