Research and Engagement Lead – Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS)
Women we spoke to found it very difficult to contextualize risk, particularly those who were told that they were at risk of a certain poor outcome or a condition because of something inherent to them that was not modifiable. For example, women who are living with obesity are constantly being told that they are at higher risk of a poor outcome but are never told by how much. No one was ever able to quantify the likelihood of the bad outcome happening. Part of that is the way in which risks are presented to people- often just as relative risk on its own. Risks are extrapolated from large scale epidemiological studies and then applied to an individual in a clinical setting, but without describing how that risk is calculated and translated to an individual, it’s very difficult for them to contextualize it.